Top 119 Quotes & Sayings by Ian Brown - Page 2

People have to realise you don't help African children singing along to 60-year-old men playing their tunes from 40 years ago.

I'd like to change the world. Eradicate poverty, racism, and sexism... all the usual things.

I've not thought about the Stone Roses since we quit. How many LPs do I have to make to stop people talking about it?

Every time I do interviews, they ask me about the same things - poverty, war, and the power of the church.

I gave it up three weeks before my black belt, foolishly. I got to my third brown belt and must have trained for 18 months but never went for it. I was nearly 18 and got this thing in my head about, ' Who are they to grade me?' Trying to be a rebel when I should have done it. It's my only regret, not going for a black belt.

I actually was able to give up shopping in February '99.

I went into jail with absolutely no respect whatsoever for authority, and I came out with even less.

I never wanted to be a pop singer, but I always watched pop programs and knew I could do better than the people I was seeing.

Honestly, going solo is the second best thing that's ever happened to me after my kids.

It is a fact that everyone's got a limited run in music - but who's to say how long that run lasts? I used to think that there would be no way I'd still be in music when I was 40. I used to think anyone who was 40 was an old man, and they probably shouldn't be doing it anymore.

I liked him, that Jarvis Cocker. I like the fact he was androgynous, he could appeal to everybody. He wasn't just a lad pretending to be a thug.

I give thanks for everything that's ever happened to me and for everything I've got.

I started doing karate when I was 11.

Everything I've ever achieved, I've done on my terms.

If I was in the gutter, and my kids lived on the kerb, I'd go and get a job in B&Q before I'd reform the Roses. I gave everything I had to the Stone Roses and ended up hitting a brick wall. I'm never going to give anyone a foothold on that wall again.

I'm only really good at making music. I wasn't convinced when I started out, but then I heard the first Stone Roses' LP.

I've got six solo albums. I've been round the world three times. I don't even think about the Roses.

With the Stone Roses, I always thought we'd be successful because we had some great songs.

At primary school, I thought I was George Best. Then I got to secondary school, and it was more serious.

I'd never been paid for the first Roses LP - it was 2002 before we received any royalties.

We need to ban all air-freighted food. Carrots from Holland. Potatoes from Egypt. It's got to stop.

Permacultures - where you use the immediate environment to grow food - should be mandatory.

By 1993, the Stone Roses had become this huge, beautiful cruise ship just floating about in the middle of nowhere with no captain.

Maybe if you see me begging on the streets, you might find me doing The Stone Roses the next day.

I feel like the Roses were a great group, but I never wanted to try to do it again. I knew I couldn't get a band that would compare to the Roses, that would have an impact like the Roses.

If you want to call me a Karaoke King, I'll take it.

With the Roses, I knew we were great; I felt that we would achieve something. On my own, I had no idea.

One person might perceive me as godlike, and the next might think I'm a northern thug. I don't think I've done myself any favours... but I swear I've not had a proper fight since I was 14.

We feel we're the only British group worth exporting since the Sex Pistols, definitely.

We believe that anyone can do anything, and everyone's a star. And that's evident from the shows we do. It just feels like a whole bunch of people in a room celebrating something - maybe just being alive.

I always loved Oasis because when they came out, they did express that they loved us, and they saw that we did it, and they thought they could do it, too.

Even on songs we've got that are about a girl, there's always something there that's a call to insurrection.

I feel like I've established myself as a music maker in my own right.

We should be growing carrots up the side of the Empire State Building or Big Ben.

I love harmonicas - old blues players like Sonny Boy Williamson.

We're the most important group in the world.

My wife is Mexican, and she's really influenced me: She's got an impressive collection of Mexican music.

I wrote a lot of lyrics in prison, but they'd all be like, 'Crawls upon the shoulders, hatred in the eyes.' I wrote about 50 songs in there that were all about jail. I've come out and thought, 'I've only served eight weeks; I can't really write a concept album about jail.'

I like the fact that a group can become successful, and by way of what you are, you can show up all the other people who are around you.

One thing I've always loved and rated me dad for is that, because of him, I've never seen the Queen's Christmas speech.

I'm the only Red in our family! You know my father, my brother, my brother-in-law, my 14-year-old niece and two of my uncles are all City season ticket holders. So I'm gonna say 5-0 to United!

Love resolves. Love. Love's deeper than the hurt.

Knight saved it with his back arm

You have a gift that can make you rich. Everyone does.

If you put your cameras down you might be able to live in the moment. You have a memory there of something you've never lived.

What does it feel like to represent a newspaper that used to support Adolf Hitler? And supports the banker Kabbalists that are ruining the world? Did you vote Tory?

It takes time for people to fall in love with you....but it’s inevitable

The technical brilliance of Lang Lang and the musical genius to create a masterpiece on the spot.

I think we're great. I think we've still got it. And I think we've got something to give to people. And I think in times like this we can uplift people. We're doing it for ourselves, I'm not gonna lie. We wanted to announce our reunion the day after the riots, but it was important to play together before we announced it.

No-one ever votes Tory, do they?

There's a lot of good rappers in England at the moment. There's a lot of good dance acts. A lot of good, young guitar acts. I think a lot of groups came from that dole culture of the late 80's/early 90's - it's not as easy now. I think there's a dearth of working class bands.

The money's always been on the table. We could have took that money any time we wanted - every year, two, three times a year we've had offers, all the way down the line.

You'd be sick if you saw my adidas collection...you would be physically sick if you saw it. I'm not gonna say where it is.

I think I'm like The Beatles - I think each one I've done is better than the last one. And hopefully I'll never make a Let It Be.

...a tale of too many cooks in the defence.

We've got no hate for each other [in the band Stone Roses], and we never have.

Manchester's got everything except a beach.

I've parked my solo thing in a lay-by and jumped in another vehicle and I'm in that now.

We'll keep writing and if it hits our standards we'll go with it. We're not here to destroy anything. It's as precious to us as it is for someone who's followed us for years.