At its best new wave/punk represents a fundamental and age-old Utopian dream: that if you give people the license to be as outrageous as they want in absolutely any fashion they can dream up, they'll be creative about it, and do something good besides.

The ultimate sin of any performer is contempt for the audience.

All blues singers are great liars.

Music, you know, true music not just rock 'n' roll, chooses you.

The great thing about The Clash of course is that they keep searching for answers beyond that.

The Mekons are the most revolutionary group in the history of rock 'n' roll.

They wouldn't be heroes if they were infallible, in fact they wouldn't be heroes if they weren't miserable wretched dogs, the pariahs of the earth, besides which the only reason to build up an idol is to tear it down again.