LYDON QUOTES


Hmmm... See, look at him sit and think - the mans an intelectual! One of the things that has given John his celebrity status and made him the perfect frontman for the Pistols is his innate sarcasm for, er, everything in the world. Lydon on punk rock : "There isn't no such thing anymore. That's something that happened way back in the late 70s. Historically, that's where it belongs. You gotta move on. Anyone imitating that now in the 90's is a bit of a fool. You should have your own thing and stop looking up to Granddad." and that is a rule for my generation to live by!


"...I want people to go out and start something, to see us and start something, or else I'm just wasting my time."

"My occupation is occupational hazard"

"Things happen because you make them happen - there's no such thing as destiny or fate or any of that"

"I get inspired watching all these idiots, who take fake drugs that do nothing for you, dancing about in clubs. We've become a mindless generation of followers; nobody is a doer any more."

"Yes [we're ripe for a revolution]. I don't know what it will be and I don't know when it will come, but we live in a society where the working-class ideal has been eroded and there's no inspiration... Don't look to me to be a leader. Despite what people think, I've never been a leader. I just live my life. If some people take example or inspiration, then so be it."

"You'll get one number and one number only cus' I'm a lazy bastard"

"Anarchy is nonsense. If it were true anarchy in the real sense, it wouldn't even have a name."

"I do what I do cos I love doing it, and yipee' if anyone else likes it."

"What war on terrorism? We're bombing the fuck out of a load of sand. Killing yourself is the ultimate sacrifice for a cause. These people are that fucking desperate. We need to look at the causes - why are people doing that? What's pushing people to do that? Find out why and try and put it right. Bombing innocent people and blowing up the desert is just wrong." Note to John : I thought you were anti-hippie...

"You'll get what you're given."

"I don't mean to be rude, but are you lactating?"

"I like Americans very much. No problem. I like England, but I don't like the government. And the government here is as wack as anywhere else. Ain't no different. I don't know where that lot [the Bush Administration] goes to breed. It's ridiculous. I suppose in England they vote in idiots that can talk clever or sound clever and have a bigger vocabulary, but they're still idiots. At least your idiots can't spell potato."

"If you can't question your own philosophies, and you have to - daily - then they're not philosophies you should be following" (sounds a little like what I said earlier too... odd...)

"September 11 screwed a lot of things for everyone, but particularly anyone that had something going - or raised a point of view that might not be the official line. At the same time, I see opposite points of view as not being a threat at all but highly bloody useful."

"Yes. Ignore record companies. They've had their time and have shown nothing but corrupt politics, and have gotten theirs from the file sharers. Their decision to deny licensing to play music on the Internet is bizarre, and doesn't benefit the artist. We want to be heard by the majority of people, so move along record companies. Your time is up."

"My biggest fear, right, is ticks on the testicles."

"Young bands don't need an $800,000 video. If you can't play live you're in the wrong industry."

"Clap you fuckers. Because I m wasting my time not hearing myself."

"There's no point preaching to the converted or the clones."

"I don't need a rolls royce, I don't need a house in the country, I don't need to live in the south of France. I'm happy as I am and I"m gonna carry on."

"aren't we the worst thing you've ever seen? You can all stop starring at us now!"

"We want people to come and think about themselves, not copycat MTV punks."

"We were the first people to call eachother cunts - outright... And we are."

"Substitue I like, but only certain phrases, so I'd twist them about.. Oh, you can't do that, it's a classic says Glenn... Ha ha ha ha - FUCK OFF!"

"I was spotted on the King's road wearing an 'I hate Pink Floyd' T-shirt...I personalized it myself.."

"...what they were telling me was that the southern half of the American population was uncivilized... untrue."

"We do this to improve ourselves, not perpetuate the same old problems."

"We might do, we might not [make another album]. We haven't thought about it, not in 25 years. What's the need? What's the rush? Oh, I forgot, we're after your money. We should get another record out."

"I don't mean to be paranoid. Hello, we're probably being monitored right now. And so what? Tits! Tits! Tits! Let's just talk tits and cunts!"

"You aren't out to impress anybody with your big bad self, you just ARE your big bad self."

"There is a god....... and he lives right up my ASS!"

"The arrest of Sid Vicious.. poor ol' Sid gets collared in his Chelsea hotel apartment in new York, with the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend - Nancy Spungen.. (groans)... bitch"

"I don't mean to lecture, but I have a very low tolerance for idiocy"

"NO ONE EVER STUCK THEIR WILLIE UP MY BUM!!!"

"I don't believe anyone should ever be fully understood."

"The day I run out of ideas is the day I stop making records"

"The entire punk movement. The term's been applied to a genre of music and it's been transformed into a uniform and a list of rules, regulations and rigid attitudes. It's humorless, bland outright copying. It's fake, and I don't like it. It's the enemy."

"I don't do no wrong, but if you wrong me, you got a fucking enemy for life. And that's how it should be. There's a line, a wall of respect, and if somebody trips over that -- kill 'em."

"They want the fantasy, they want the nonsense. They want to be mollycoddled and led into a cosy belief that everythings fine when it isnt."

"I like to know how things are, yeah. And I can be very, very wrong from time to time. But open debate to me is a thrill, not something to despise or run away from. And thats why I like to attack so many institutions, because if they cant stand up to the argument, then they cannot stand up and have no valid place in life or history."

"If you havent done it for yourself, it is worthless. Being able to stand up and say, 'Hello, Id like to thank absolutely no one for nothing' that is an achievement."

"Embrace the future. It'll be absolutely chaotic."

"I stand up and scream every chance I can, but I cant be the only one. Otherwise Im just a voice in the wilderness, and howling out there."

"Because without change, this is all rather pointless."

"Im even better. And less prone to being distraught and moody and miserable, depressed by things not working out. Now its just 'Oh well, that didnt happen next. Move on. Dont wallow in it.' Self-pity is such a defeating nonsense. Its a luxury really. Like boredom. People should realize that. That we now live in a society where we can have those luxuries and this was not possible 100 years back. Only the very idle wealthy and titled had that luxury. Now weve all got it."

"The wiser you get, the more you know that there is no answer."

"...I hate shit. I hate hippies and what they stand for. I hate long hair. I hate pub bands. I want to change it so there are rock bands like us."

"When the Pistols broke up, that was the real end of punk. I remmber sitting in Watford bus depot. The Sex Pistols breakup was the front head-line of every newspaper. It was all over, and there wasn't anything to replace it. We stuck with it for a bit, although I remember being aware of trying not to wear leather jackets and not wanting to be a punk anymore.... you couldn't possibly be interested in any part of it after the Pistols broke up. Once I had actually been that involved, it was hard to just become a Clash fan. I had lost my innocence, I wasn't impressed anymore. I listened to the first track of the Clash's Give em ENough ROpe and that was it. I didn't buy any more of their records or go to any more of their gigs. THen to really ram is home - Sid died"

"I don't need to convince anybody. If you don't believe me by now when I say a thing, well you haven't been listening."

"...My big question is, tell me one reason why not? And that's where I stump them, cos there is no reason not to."

"It was wonderful! People loved me.. they threw flowers"

"I'm not horrible, they made me horrible, I'm just honest."

"No. The press gave us it - it's their problem, not ours.. We never called ourselves punk"

"Dont be nice, it's the kiss of death."

"What's up with the swearing censor? it's my languge so fuck Off"

"I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither do you. Enjoy or die..."

"If you hadn't guess already - we're the Sex Pistols!"

"You'll get one song and one song only because I'm a lazy bastard"

"I despise the National Front.." (any surprise?)

"If you don't want to be a popstar - just stop being one. Its the easiest thing in the world to just STOP"

"...Just cos your paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. "

"...chaos only works well inside four very strict brick walls"

"I don't know. I just seem to ruin people's lives"

"Infamous language? You're joking? I speak nothing but the fucking English language."

"Its kind of mindless. Theyre expecting some great insight into where culture really is. But culture is non-existent, really. Its a delusion. Its a theme. And it goes on and on and on, and its constantly changing, and just when you think youve grasped what your culture is or the culture you aspire to, its changed."

"You cheeky cunt!"

"As far as sponsorship goes, nobody wants to have a tax cut on our name. Even Tampax turned us down. Sanitary napkins? We'd be more than happy!"

"Amazing isn't it?The stupidity that gets you through the day."

"Giving away that much money for no reason... classic stupidity."

(sarcastically) "I try so hard to be nice..."

(about punk) "People who had no self-respect started viewing themselves as beautiful in not being beautiful"

"It's only uncle Johnny and the boys here... fat, forty, and BACK!"

"Guns don't kill people, cops kill people"

"I don't like rock music, I don't know why I'm in it... I just want to destroy everything"

"I don't have any heros... they're all useless"

"I consider myself working class. We're lazy, good-for-nothing-bastards... absolute copouts."

"How can it be culture, because culture is all about uniting people, and rap certainly doesn't... because I'm rather bored, seeing as how it originated and what it's become now, listening to black guys say white people shouldn't listen to or make rap music. I find that just disgusting. Who the fuck died and made them God?"

"I'm not here for your amusement. You're here for mine"

"the first line I wrote was 'I am an anti-christ.'. And I couldn't think of a damn thing that ryme with it.. and anarchist just fit in really nicely."

"It's funny how people point fingers and stand up for the Moral Majority.. Always be suspicious of he who shouts the loudest."

At the end of the Filth and Furth, Julien Temples 2000 documentary of the Sex Pistols, John gives a very emotional monologue into the camera which explains quite about:
"I've lost my friend. I couldn't have changed it, I was too young... God I wish I was smarter... You can look back on it OK, hmm I could have done something. He DIED for fucks sake! They just turned it into making money. Ha ha ha ha. Hi-larious for them. Fucking chic. I'll hate them forever for doing that. You can't get more evil than that can you Julien, really?"

"When there's no future, how can there be sin? We're the flowers in your dustbin, we're the poison in your human machine, we're the future - your future!"

"Oh anger is always the best energy. Always. Use your anger very, very well.

And of course, the most famous of all Lydon quotes:
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

A huge thanks to Kenny, who spent a lot of time going through interviews and articles picking these out. That's probably half the work on this page


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