I always knew the Sixties wasn't a revolution. It really was just a bunch of university students with wealthy parents having fun.
— John Lydon
I hate death; it takes people away from you. You're left feeling rudderless.
I've never told anyone this. But I suffer from terrible stage fright. True. You can't tell though, can you? Unbelievable, the panic. I nearly die of fear before I go on stage. Something wicked. I can't eat a thing the day before a gig. It'd make me vomit.
For me, the best rock is not what you play - it's what you're not playing.
The real color of my hair is mouse. I always want to be ginger, which I was when I was born, or blond, because I live in L.A., and I want to look like I go surfing without any physical effort.
I hate the technological rip-offs that pass for music formats these days, and go back to vinyl to hear a good record because the sound is always so much fuller. I don't even like listening to music in the car.
You're made to feel ugly, and I made ugly beautiful. Just by sheer persistence. Nobody has the right to say that I am ugly, and I will not be a professional victim, you know. Sorry!
My way of thinking as I approach any human being on this planet is, 'What are you doing now?' That's what interests me. I don't come at anybody with a whole bunch of assumptions.
We need wealthy dogs off the seats of power. They're taking us back to feudalism and I really don't want that. But I'm very far from being a socialist.
As a human being, I'm work in process.
Music is a simulation of something, but language is the greatest thing we possess.
Britain's an island; it's always had a constant ebb and flow of immigration - it makes it a better place.
I have a sensible set of values that tell me to never lie.
I applaud the effort it takes to put a record together.
I had an Irish Catholic education. Horrible nuns, vindictive and cruel.
Live music is healthy.
I don't tolerate liars. When somebody lies to me, that's really, like, just unbearable.
As a young concert-going person, I was never enamoured with celebrities who would walk out to feature in certain songs and then walk off.
When you grew up like me and my four brothers, you end up feeling somewhat inadequate, like somehow you don't count.
You can always wake up on the wrong side of the bed and, boo-hiss, everyone suffers. We can all be temperamental.
Look, if the Situationists achieved what they wanted, they would be very unhappy and they would have to be Situationists all over again. It's a never-ending process.
Americans being upright and forthright and honest and true to themselves is a very hard concept.
There's no harm in me. Really, I'm just a big kid.
Freedom isn't to do what you want at somebody else's expense.
Here's how I understand music. If you can play the same bunch of noise twice, it's music. To go beyond that is supercilious and pontificating.
I love America. I love Americans.
There are no limits to where our brains can take us. We are, if there be a God, God's gracious creation.
Books are like my one and only joy.
I've always despised the hippies.
You need the past as a guideline. The history of music is a good basis, but to escape that stuff, that tortuous rulebook, you have to learn it first. It's kind of like religion - once you've written the Bible, that's it, move on.
If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions.
Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.
The record companies fell apart - quite deservedly. Their corrupting, all-binding contract nonsense had to stop.
I don't have any expensive habits. I'm not a car collector or any of that nonsense. But I'd love to be incredibly wealthy for no reason at all.
You'd have to be daft as a brush to say you didn't like Pink Floyd.
My words are my bullets.
I've turned arrogance into an artform, where it's so absurd that it becomes comedy. But I've never done anything to hurt anybody or steal from anyone.
Situationism is a ludicrous proposition. It's ill-formed and it's perfectly French. That Gallic disposition towards common sense. L'Anarchie!
Occasionally, a re-enactment is a fine thing. I love Civil War re-enactments.
When I write, my brain moves faster than my hands so I'm always trying to picture things.
I never wore a studded leather jacket, y'know. Ne-va!
I love conversation and the sharing of different thoughts and philosophies. That kind of stuff always makes me happy. I don't mind interviews, either - I like doing them.
Gossip is a very dangerous tool. We should be more wary of the gossiper, and not the gossip they're trying to relay to you.
If I'm left to my own devices, I will be tempted to make the most unlistenable music possible.
Let's face it, I ain't ever gonna be the best singer in the world, or the best anything.
Heaven is on this earth. There are no angels on the clouds with twanging harps... That's just another man's fantasy.
Over the years, during television interviews, whenever the host or the reviewer or whoever gets cynical and nasty with me, I will behave accordingly. I will defend myself.
I'd rather give up my ears than my eyes, which might sound unusual for a musician.
One of the most beautiful things about Britain, apart from the NHS and the free education, is the British Army.
U2 - that's a band that never should have existed. There's no life experience in any of their songs.
