Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Charlotte Caffey

No one has done what we've done. We're the first female band to have a No. 1 record.

We are just the most twisted, sick, hilarious people that I know.

To all musicians - forget gender - to all musicians, it's about - do what makes you happy. Just go for it, you know?

I was more of a surfer girl and never really that punky.

Here's the thing about The Go-Go's: Onstage, any moment could be a total train wreck.

I liked the Beatles and all the folk rockers.

I don't think we fully understood what the implications could be when we found out we were doing 'SNL.'

Look; being in this band, of course it would be great, yeah. But, I mean, I don't live and breathe every minute of every day thinking like, 'Oh, my God. We have to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.'

Having a kid is getting a certain kind of freedom in a way because you can't be self-obsessed anymore.

I'm only speaking for myself, but having a kid has put everything else in my life in perspective.

I don't want to be part of a band unless it's fun.

Oh, everything we did was completely organic - from the way we looked to the way we sounded, the way we played - everything.

We were up for a Grammy, we sold millions of records and we toured the world I don't know how many times. It was insane.

I think the older we get, the better we perform.

In the old days I never thought about money - but then, of course, the clothes were so ugly in the '80s there was nothing I wanted.

I ran to get my cassette recorder and sang 'We Got the Beat' into the recorder to document it. I knew I had written something special. It took two minutes. I didn't labor on the lyrics. It's a simple song, which goes back to the '60s, when I had my ears glued to the radio for the Stones, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys.

I love working with artists who know exactly what they want.

I still love playing live, and I love doing records, but writing songs is my main thing.

The Go-Go's were a frothy pop band. I wanted to do music that had a harder edge.

I went through an extreme depression.

There was something about the chemistry of the band and we would feed off each other. It was a gang of girls unleashed.

In the year after we signed with I.R.S. we made a record, started our own tour, toured with the Police, and our record went to No. 1. It was insane.

Legendary photographer Annie Leibowitz persuaded us to pose in our underwear. When the magazine hit the stands we were horrified to see the caption 'Go-Go's Put Out.' Regardless, I was extremely excited to see us at every newsstand on every corner, our faces on the cover of 'Rolling Stone!'

I was fortunate enough to be living in Hollywood, CA, when the underground punk rock music scene started. It was a small group of artists, misfits and weirdos, where everyone was welcomed and encouraged to express themselves.

I had written or cowritten eight of the ten songs on 'Beauty and the Beat,' and I had written our biggest hit, 'We Got the Beat.' How was I going to top all of that?

I've been married for 23 years to Jeff McDonald from Redd Kross.

The odds were against us being an all-female garage band from California.

I didn't know how to play lead guitar. There was a freedom in not knowing how to do it.

There's definitely sadness happening in this band. I get melancholy every day about things.

In some ways, we were very innocent. And in other ways, we were just rock 'n' roll girls on the loose.

People at the record labels were like, 'We don't want to sign you, you're girls' - sexist, ridiculous nonsense.

Being in a band, whether your female or male, is really hard.

We're a band and we just happen to be chicks, that's the way we've always thought of ourselves.

No one told us what to wear, what to write, what to play. When they tried to, we shot 'em down easily.

We had so many obstacles. We had a lot of sexism and misogyny, there's a lot of things that were against us. But we've just pushed forward and we showed everybody.

Being in a band with guys didn't feel like what I should be doing.

We were approached by Alison Ellwood about the idea of doing a documentary. At first, we were a bit nervous because we didn't want it come across as a salacious 'Behind The Music' kind of thing. Alison did such a great job. It really puts perspective on things.

The worst thing about the music business is the business part of it. Business has nothing whatever to do with writing, playing and performing.

We didn't necessarily write about women's rights or talk about it. We were just doing it.

We were the first all-girl band that wrote and played our own stuff. You know, the odds were really against us because rock has traditionally been dominated by men.

I've never been a great lead guitar player.

We were a bonded group of girls, and it was us against the world and us against the odds.

One of the problems we had was trying to live up to this bubbly image. All the music was supposed to be bubbly. That's what people expected from us. But that was very limiting.

My whole world up until punk was this total repressed Catholic lifestyle.

I daydream about romance and stuff.

In April of 1978 I was asked to join an all-girl band that was just taking shape, The Go-Go's. It was one of those moments in my life - and there were many - when I just blurted out 'Yes!'

It's like our little thing: you can take the girl out of the punk, but you can't take the punk out of the girl.

We don't necessarily want to do a biopic. Mostly because it's like, 'Big deal. Band gets together and gets big. Then the excesses come and they fall apart.'

Being in a band is being punk, no matter what. You have to dedicate your life to it.

I've lived kind of a sad-happy life. It's like, every time you take a breath, it's heavy, but on the outside you're like a clown family traveling along the universe.

I saw Blondie open for the Ramones, and I remember being really impressed by Debbie Harry and her awkwardness.

Back in 1981, the chances of a punk-rock girl band from L.A. doing what we did was completely nil.

The freedom of punk really appealed to me because I came from the rules and regulations of studying classical piano.

I'm working in theater. I did not grow up loving or even knowing anything about it, except for 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Tommy.' But I love it. It's such a great collaborative thing.

I think the thing is we really have a great time playing on stage. I think that people really feel that. So I guess we put on a good show.

While we were touring for 'Vacation,' we weren't aware that the record wasn't doing well. It was a good tour, but the album didn't go over with critics.

We're really funny, focused, and we put on a great live show.

I do believe the music keeps us coming back. We really enjoy playing it.

We had that horrible experience with 'Behind the Music' where they just made it all salacious. That's not about the band - that's a soap opera. If you're together with a spouse or a partner for 40 years, you're going to have arguments. But if you're with four other people, you're going have exponentially that many more things happen.

It wasn't much fun being Charlotte Go-Go. I like being Charlotte Caffey better.