Top 34 Quotes & Sayings by Mark E. Smith

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English musician Mark E. Smith.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Mark Edward Smith was an English singer and songwriter, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester and was its leader until his death. During their 42-year existence, the Fall's line-up included some 60 musicians with whom Smith released 31 studio albums and numerous singles and EPs.

English - Musician | March 5, 1957 - January 24, 2018

Source: Wikipedia

They're weird aren't they, Prince fans?

Mark E. Smith

I like to push people till I get the truth out of them.

Mark E. Smith

I read daft history books. Sometimes the books I read are a bit crackers or strange.

Mark E. Smith

When I was 14, I used to have a calendar on my wall, crossing the days off until I was 15, because the school leaving age was 15. Then three months before I turned 15 they changed the leaving age to 16.

Mark E. Smith

I used to be psychic, but I drank my way out of it.

Mark E. Smith

Fear is something I try not to absorb.

Mark E. Smith

'Re-Mit' is going to terrify people. It's quite horrible. The Fall have had enough and we're coming for you.

Mark E. Smith

The manners thing's got worse. People think they can just text you if they've got bad news for you. It's not on. And as for people taking pictures at gigs on their phones, that's just weird.

Mark E. Smith

The thing with me, I can't talk about my work. I find it very difficult.

Mark E. Smith

I'm just never getting there. I'm getting round to it. I'm beginning to understand it a bit more.

Mark E. Smith

I don't want security guards. I don't think security guards are particularly good for your writing.

Mark E. Smith

Prince's manager once told me that I was the only person other than Prince who can recruit from the streets. Which was very flattering.

Mark E. Smith

The only good Philip K. Dick film is 'Total Recall.' It's faithful to the book. Arnie gets it.

Mark E. Smith

The thing with me. I can't stick musicians. I've thought about this. I can't stand them, and being stuck in a studio with them I think that's my strength I can hear what they can't.

Mark E. Smith

Being in The Fall isn't like being in another group. It isn't a holiday. A lot of musicians are really hard to deal with. They aren't as smart as me.

Mark E. Smith

My earliest memory is learning to read 'Muffin the Mule' when I was about three.

Mark E. Smith

When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.

Mark E. Smith

All these cities I go to, I never see them. They may be the most beautiful places in the world, but I'll just usually go to the nearest bar. I need a couple of hours by myself.

Mark E. Smith

It's just like music when you reckon it up. It's like listening to Pavement it's just The Fall in 1985, isn't it? They haven't got an original idea in their heads.

Mark E. Smith

If it's me and yer granny on bongos, it's the Fall.

Mark E. Smith

Every day is great for me. I dislike rose-coloured glasses.

Mark E. Smith

Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?

Mark E. Smith

He told me I didn't understand, that we were from the bleak industrial wastes of North England, or something, and that we didn't understand the Internet. I told him Fall fans invented the Internet. They were on there in 1982.

Mark E. Smith

I do feel like an outsider, but I don't lose any sleep over it.

Mark E. Smith

I was picked on because I was timid. I had younger sisters; I couldn't turn to them for help. I didn't have an older brother.

Mark E. Smith

The gigs I enjoy are the ones where I'm so angry and paranoid, and I hate the audience so much, that I put everything into it to feed off the aggressive side of it. I don't actually hate the fans but when I'm feeling angry, pissed off, and full of hate, it's a good gig for me.

Mark E. Smith

We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group, like, warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. I said, 'Shut them cunts up!' And they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The bands said, 'That's the Sons of Mumford' or something. 'They're number five in charts!' I just thought they were a load of retarded Irish folk singers.

Mark E. Smith

When I was 14 I used to have a calendar on my wall, crossing the days off until I was 15, because the school leaving age was 15. Then three months before I turned 15 they changed the leaving age to 16.

Mark E. Smith

It's just like music when you reckon it up. It's like, listening to Pavement, it's just the Fall in 1985, isn't it? They haven't got an original idea in their heads.

Mark E. Smith

A lot of musicians are really hard to deal with. They aren't as smart as me.

Mark E. Smith

I like to push people till I get the truth out of them. Get them drunk, or whatever. Then discover what they really think. Push them and push them and push them.

Mark E. Smith

I can write, boy, I can write. That's what I do. The trouble is that it's too bloody easy for people, that's why music is in the sorry state that it is. Any idiot, actors mainly, can go in there, sing a chord, bang on a machine... I'm not objecting to that but when people get at me for trying to say something in a rock 'n' roll mode it's as if I'm the freak.

Mark E. Smith

If you're going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly.

Mark E. Smith

When I was 18 the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.

Mark E. Smith