John Lydon

Musician

166 Quotes

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.

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

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.

Let's face it, I ain't ever gonna be the best singer in the world, or the best anything.

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

My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to.

I love American ski resorts because they're open to everyone, are not incredibly expensive. They're not snobby and you can have fun all day long on the most excellent mountains.

Live music is healthy.

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

Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.

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.

People don't like other poor people, and rather than blame the people that make you all poor, you blame each other.

I love being alive so much. When you come out of comas in your childhood, every moment awake is a joyous occasion.

A record company used to be a very good thing, but they ended up soul-destroyingly trapping people in the accounting department. And you couldn't get any further, and the heads of each department were changing all the time, so you couldn't have any permanent relationship within the corporation.

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

Me, as a human, I never want to take away another human being's choices or lifestyles or anything.

Oscar Wilde turned the world upside down and was able to laugh at it, and hopefully by the time I'm 120 and worn out, that's what I will achieve. I love being alive so much.

You have moments of grief in life, and if you can put pen to paper and capture that, that's something wonderful. I can revisit actual songs about past deaths, and I know that emotion is as true now as it was then.

Gossip is a very dangerous tool. We should be more wary of the gossiper, and not the gossip they're trying to relay to you.

Music is a simulation of something, but language is the greatest thing we possess.

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