Top 254 Quotes & Sayings by John Lydon
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English musician John Lydon.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
There are no limits to where our brains can take us. We are, if there be a God, God's gracious creation.
When you come from desperate poverty, and that's exactly what I come from, you know that nonsenses are not to be tolerated. I'm not sure who gains from chaos, but I know it's not the poor folks in the council flats. The politics of vindictiveness is never, ever anything like a solution.
Words cannot express quite a lot of feelings, whereas a noise or tone or drone or sound, an accordion falling down a staircase, can somehow capture an emotion much better.
You'd have to be daft as a brush to say you didn't like Pink Floyd.
My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to.
I hate death; it takes people away from you. You're left feeling rudderless.
A record company used to be a very good thing, but they ended up soul-destroyingly trapping people in the accounting department. And you couldn't get any further, and the heads of each department were changing all the time, so you couldn't have any permanent relationship within the corporation.
I mean, the genuine roots of culture is folk music.
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.
I always knew the Sixties wasn't a revolution. It really was just a bunch of university students with wealthy parents having fun.
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.
I always find the mirror in the dressing room is where the best artists are.
If anyone asks for your autograph they're showing you respect and give it back to them.
Records were vitally important to the development of music and of all music cultures. With that being pushed by the wayside, I can't see an iPod uniting us. In fact it separates us, the streets are full of people bumping into lamp posts, listening to their own little universe, and there's no sharing in that.
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.
Live music is healthy.
There are some Rolling Stones songs that are just stunners.
There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.
I applaud the effort it takes to put a record together.
I like crazy people, especially those who don't see the risk.
People should never allow themselves to be dictated to by media.
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.
As a human being, I'm work in process.
I'm not here for your amusement. You're here for mine.
Listen, you know this: If there's not a rebellious youth culture, there's no culture at all. It's absolutely essential. It is the future. This is what we're supposed to do as a species, is advance ideas.
Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative.
If you can sort out why you feel the way you do then you might be in better shape to meet your maker.
Punk was never about one particular clean-cut imagery... it's about many, many individuals coming very loosely together.
I never take any commitment lightly, and I certainly don't take my wife lightly. I never did and I never will. That's permanent. That's true love.
It's a repressive society where you can't be horrible, I'm not horrible, they made me horrible, I'm just honest.
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.
I cannot comprehend fundamentalism. It's fundamentally wrong.
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.
I'm not this callous clown walking around laughing at life all the time. I've had some serious, serious problems in my life. But I've come out with a smile.
I don't tolerate liars. When somebody lies to me, that's really, like, just unbearable.
I never thought of Green Day as a punk band. Just bubblegum, really.
When you grew up like me and my four brothers, you end up feeling somewhat inadequate, like somehow you don't count. I was very ill as a child and in and out of hospital. That sort of alienates you, and in my songs I put that to good use.
My entire life, socially, was all around the Maggie era. That was the great challenge as a Sex Pistol was how to deal with Margaret Thatcher. I think we did rather good.
It's volatile, the marriage. Which one isn't? Nothing better than a good, full-on row. Get it all out. Say rude and nasty things. And then be sorry. Genuinely sorry, afterwards.
I've been asked over the years to compile a list of desert-island discs. I couldn't do that. If I was trapped on a desert island, I don't think I'd want 10 songs to bring with me.
People don't like other poor people, and rather than blame the people that make you all poor, you blame each other.
I showed what I can do with butter, right? Eighty-five percent increase in sales. I'm very proud of them Country Life ads. They were funny and clever and classy like the Toblerone ads I grew up with.
It's no good being nice and young and naive. There's no good in that at all. You've got to do it all yourself, and you've gotta learn quick. And you can't look for sympathy either.
Love is 2 minutes and 52 seconds of squelching noises.
Freedom isn't to do what you want at somebody else's expense.
I love consumerism, TV culture, shopping malls. There's nothing I'd ever buy, but I like being there. It's wacky.
The joy of life is in the work.
I've never said I'm a communist.
I have a sensible set of values that tell me to never lie.
If my leg falls off, I'll get a prosthetic. There'd be no deep sadness about. I'd just get on with it! It's called life, and I love life. You have to be positive, and you have to crack on no matter what.
Do what I want, be honest to myself and then it would do good for others, that's all, full on.
Rules are important, but they're temporary and they're always supposed to be changed.
It's nice to be irritated. It's a very joyous thing.
I don't release records to be anything but enjoyable.
When you grew up like me and my four brothers, you end up feeling somewhat inadequate, like somehow you don't count.
Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.
Heaven is on this earth. There are no angels on the clouds with twanging harps... That's just another man's fantasy.
I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hate.
Don't accept the old order. Get rid of it.
I went to visit Alcatraz years ago when I was on tour with the Pistols, and I really liked the atmosphere of the place. I genuinely, really, thoroughly enjoyed the whole morning there. I just liked the quietness and stillness of what is basically a cruel prison complex. I still found some kind of joy in that. That's how I am.
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