John Lydon quotes - page 7

John Lydon is an English singer, songwriter, and musician best known as the lead vocalist of the punk band the Sex Pistols. His outspoken personality and unique style made him a central figure in the punk movement of the late 1970s. He later led the influential post-punk band Public Image Ltd and continues to perform and comment on social issues. Here are 175 of his quotes:

These days young kids don't have any place to form an epic adventure. It's more often in front of the TV screen or a laptop. That's very hard on them. They're being taught daily unsocial skills. Facebook is an unsocial skill. It's so sad.

John Lydon

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.

John Lydon

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.

John Lydon

Punk was never about one particular clean-cut imagery... it's about many, many individuals coming very loosely together.

John Lydon

If you were to look back at me as a school kid you'd see a very quiet little church mouse kind of character.

John Lydon

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.

John Lydon

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.

John Lydon

I've helped launch 49 careers - those that have been in PiL. To me, they are my babies; whatever they get up to, they know I love them. They've been living in my pockets, and they should show more gratitude.

John Lydon

If I'm left to my own devices, I will be tempted to make the most unlistenable music possible.

John Lydon

Periods of inactivity, I don't know such things. I'm consistently writing. My life is busy. It always is. There are hardly any moments for self-indulgent laziness.

John Lydon

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.

John Lydon

I've always said, I thought the Sex Pistols was more Music Hall than anything else - because I think that really, more truths are said in humour than any other form.

John Lydon

Any new ideas go into PiL. My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to. I don't listen to any music when I'm in PiL-zone, because influences can poison your well. Otherwise, I listen to anything.

John Lydon

I like America's diversity and its landscapes.

John Lydon

I don't believe in pets. I like animals to be wild and free.

John Lydon

I've had great pleasure meeting the likes of Newt Gingrich and having a chat with the fellow on a staircase. I found him completely dishonest and totally likeable, because he doesn't care! He knows what a politician is, and he's a perfect embodiment of one.

John Lydon

Dummy Dum Dum was my nickname for years at school. I was the strange one of the family, the one who couldn't remember his name.

John Lydon

There's many, many ways to write a song. But generally, sitting down at a table and writing is not one of them.

John Lydon

Every single lyric I've ever written I meant.

John Lydon

Joe Strummer, God bless him, he's gone and he shall be missed. But how dare he preach class war with an organisation like that [the late '80s Rock Against The Rich movement]. Living in a huge house in Holland Park. Every photo opportunity to be seen on a bus in his leather jacket, and then he went back to a palace. You're not getting it quite right there! That's where his image mattered more to him than the reality. He was trying to con us. In a nice way and for the right reasons but once you start lying it carries on and on and on.

John Lydon

How can you ban language, words? How're words offensive? And why should I have to tolerate YOUR interpretation? I'm the one using the word. ASK me how I'm using it, don't TELL me. And if you don't like the way I'm using it, so what? It's my right. It's my freedom of expression. Without that, we're nothing but slaves. My language, now fuck off!!!

John Lydon

Almost killed me, nothing to be laughed at. But oddly enough it's something that made me. Without that, I probably wouldn't be where I am today, so thank God I almost died. The pain I had to endure of losing my memory and forgetting who I was - that's always still in me. I never explained it until the book, and the songs - what agony that was for me. My greatest sense of achievement was conquering that.

John Lydon