John Lydon Quotes

I think I have something valid to say. My words are my bullets. I like to brag that somehow I got it right.

Pop music I have always loved best.

For me, the best rock is not what you play - it's what you're not playing.

I'm aware of my songs. I'm aware of them because they're about true emotions, true feelings, things that matter.

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.

If you have something to say then you want someone to pay attention or at least to have the opportunity for them to tell you to shut up and go away.

Maybe I'm a prehistoric monster by being an individual. It's highly likely. All I offer to others is their own individuality. Grab it!

Analog, electronic, whatever it happens to be, I simply love and adore literally every aspect of making music.

You can't arrest me, I'm a rockstar.

Rules are important, but they're temporary and they're always supposed to be changed.

I always knew the Sixties wasn't a revolution. It really was just a bunch of university students with wealthy parents having fun.

I somehow hope - naïve though I may be, utopian, possibly - that my music has some kind of calming effect on the universe, that it's somehow beneficial to people.

You need the past as a guideline. The history of music is a good basis, but to escape that stuff, that tortuous rulebook, you have to learn it first. It's kind of like religion - once you've written the Bible, that's it, move on.

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.

U2 - that's a band that never should have existed. There's no life experience in any of their songs.

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 quite happy as I am.

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

'Lollipop Opera' is the backdrop to Finsbury Park. A place that is very thriving, interracial and lot of music stores, Greek, Turkish, all sorts of immigrant music. It's utter Englishness. It blends the Jamaicans, the Irish. It's like what Jim Reeves did with American country music.

I've created several musical trends, really. That's not because I'm so far out and fabulous. It's because most bands have no ideas of their own. They're so desperate they'll grab at any old straw.

I'm not blowing my own trumpet here, but I made a rap song 20 years ago with Afrika Bambaataa.

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.

I love pop music. It's not easy to write a good pop song. It may be easier to put out a fake jazz album, as Sting does from time to time.

If dolphins are so intelligent, how come they ain't got Walkmans?

You should never, ever be understood completely. That's like the kiss of death, isn't it? It's a full stop. I don't ever think you should put full stops on thoughts. They change.

I don't tolerate liars. When somebody lies to me, that's really, like, just unbearable.

I don't believe in anarchy, because it will ultimately amount to the power of the bully, with weapons. Gandhi is my life's inspiration: passive resistance. I don't want to live in the Thunderdome with Mad Max.

I was brought up and raised in Britain as a Labour man, and that quickly changed. And I find there are more working-class people in the Conservative Party than the Labour party.

Music can describe emotions far more accurately than words ever can. As soon as I realised that, I knew music was where I wanted to be.

Let's escape the past. The past didn't work. All we have is the future, and I'm the one who wrote "no future for you!" Don't let the irony be lost.

I got into music by happenchance and luck and wearing a t-shirt with "I hate Pink Floyd" on it. The irony has never failed to amuse me ever since because I didn't hate Pink Floyd at all! And yet you have an entire range of people out there believing that the best thing you can do in life is to hate Pink Floyd. Come on, It's because it's the world I live in!

A healthy mind can live in an unhealthy body.

I have values. But morals are Christian. There's no religion here. Values. Don't hurt when you don't need to, but don't let anybody step over that line - it's an invisible line, but it's respect for somebody's space.

If anyone asks for your autograph they're showing you respect and give it back to them.

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

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.

Freedom isn't to do what you want at somebody else's expense.

The record companies fell apart - quite deservedly. Their corrupting, all-binding contract nonsense had to stop.

Rock n' roll is over, don't you get it? It lasted 25 years and now gets wiped out. The Sex Pistols were the bullet in the brain. They were the last rock and roll band.

There's nothing glorious in dying. Anyone can do it.