John Lydon Quotes

I'm very open about my politics. I don't believe in any political party at all, none of them. ~ John Lydon

I nearly die of fear before I go on stage. Something wicked. I can't eat a thing the day before a gig. ~ John Lydon

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? ~ John Lydon

Anger is an energy. It really bloody is. It's possibly the most powerful one-liner I've ever come up with. When I was writing the Public Image Ltd song 'Rise', I didn't quite realize the emotional impact that it would have on me, or anyone who's ever heard it since. I wrote it in an almost throwaway fashion, off the top of my head, pretty much when I was about to sing the whole song for the first time, at my then new home in Los Angeles. It's a tough, spontaneous idea. 'Rise' was looking at the context of South Africa under apartheid. I'd be watching these horrendous news reports on CNN, and so lines like 'They put a hotwire to my head, because of the things I did and said', are a reference to the torture techniques that the apartheid government was using out there. Insufferable. You'd see these reports on TV and in the papers, and feel that this was a reality that simply couldn't be changed. So, in the context of 'Rise', 'Anger is an energy' was an open statement, saying, 'Don't view anger negatively, don't deny it – use it to be creative.' I combined that with another refrain, 'May the road rise with you'. When I was growing up, that was a phrase my mum and dad – and half the surrounding neighbourhood, who happened to be Irish also – used to say. 'May the road rise, and your enemies always be behind you!' So it's saying, 'There's always hope', and that you don't always have to resort to violence to resolve an issue. Anger doesn't necessarily equate directly to violence. Vio ~ John Lydon

I'm not great at dealing with death, I have to say. I find death very hard: my mum, my dad, Sid Vicious. I'm not a monster; I feel it and it scares me. One death at a time, please, is all my heart will bear. ~ John Lydon

When you talk like an asshole and look like an asshole, you're an asshole ~ John Lydon

Michael Jackson plays the wounded puppy very well. 'I must be the loneliest man in the world'. Well, you're not a man. And the loneliness is self inflicted, so sod off you pathetic puerile pimp. I wonder what color his willy is. ~ John Lydon

I could take on England, but I couldn't take on one heroin user. ~ John Lydon

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

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

You know, I've been to some superstars' houses, and I've been really disgusted when I see their platinum discs hanging in the toilet. They're just there on the walls glaring at you when you're trying to be occupied with other things. ~ John Lydon

When you come from desperate poverty, and that's exactly what I come from, you know that nonsenses are not to be tolerated. I'm not sure who gains from chaos, but I know it's not the poor folks in the council flats. The politics of vindictiveness is never, ever anything like a solution. ~ John Lydon

I'm in England so often I haven't really left, but Americans aren't at all like they're misrepresented through their politicians. ~ John Lydon

There have been conversations here in the United States about why every ex-President opens a library when politicians do not read the books. Hello, America! Kind of explains your politics. For me, reading saved me, it brought me back. ~ John Lydon

People think I hate the Royal Family, but that's not true. ~ John Lydon

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

No matter what you experience in life, it incorporates political tendencies, and in so many ways. ~ 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 like America's diversity and its landscapes. ~ John Lydon

Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence. ~ John Lydon

I don't release records to be anything but enjoyable. ~ John Lydon

I went to visit Alcatraz years ago when I was on tour with the Pistols, and I really liked the atmosphere of the place. I genuinely, really, thoroughly enjoyed the whole morning there. I just liked the quietness and stillness of what is basically a cruel prison complex. I still found some kind of joy in that. That's how I am. ~ John Lydon

Situationism is a ludicrous proposition. It's ill-formed and it's perfectly French. That Gallic disposition towards common sense. L'Anarchie! ~ John Lydon

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! ~ John Lydon

When you grew up like me and my four brothers, you end up feeling somewhat inadequate, like somehow you don't count. ~ John Lydon

I always find the mirror in the dressing room is where the best artists are. ~ John Lydon

If you ever want to know why I'm not on a record label, look at 'The X Factor!' Honestly, of all the people that strive to break barriers in music and do good things and write great lyrics, not one of them would ever pass the first round on any of these competitions. ~ John Lydon

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

Live music is healthy. ~ John Lydon

Pop music I have always loved best. But the more extreme, fascist-led examples of the music business I tend to detest the most. ~ John Lydon

If you are pissing people off, you know you are doing something right ~ John Lydon

Do not stand in the middle, go to the right or to the left. ~ John Lydon

I love boating - not flash, 'noisy go fast' nonsense, but the general relaxation of it. My wife and I love to get in our little Wellcraft and go as far out to sea as we can, hopefully beyond land. That is the best thing you can ever do. It clears your psyche. ~ John Lydon

I'm not this callous clown walking around laughing at life all the time. I've had some serious, serious problems in my life. But I've come out with a smile. ~ John Lydon

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

Obama's dense as a doorbell; not much going on up there - it's a wooden top. ~ John Lydon

Don't accept the old order. Get rid of it. ~ John Lydon

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

I love Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart because they're bringing irony back into American humor, which is a delicious treat. The entire Colbert persona of being extreme right-wing when he's not at all is highly amusing. He does it so well, but sometimes a little too well. My wife is convinced he's completely that way. ~ John Lydon

Art should be life. It's an imitation of life. It should have some humanity in it. ~ John Lydon

When I write, my brain moves faster than my hands so I'm always trying to picture things. ~ John Lydon

I could never be a member of a single party. I want the best of all worlds, thank you. ~ John Lydon

The idea of hearing, 'Great gig, man,' one more time just turns my stomach over. ~ John Lydon

Books are like my one and only joy. ~ John Lydon

Here's how I understand music. If you can play the same bunch of noise twice, it's music. To go beyond that is supercilious and pontificating. ~ 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

I have one major problem with the Internet: It's full of liars. ~ John Lydon

Anyone who's parading under a $100,00-plus video is not free from corporate. That's just the MTV advertising agency. I find them all to be just a bit of a sham. ~ John Lydon

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. ~ John Lydon

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

Some visualize the Pistols era in shades of black and white. It wasn't. Actually, the colors I envision are neon or army dirt green with fluorescent pink
anything that would annoy. ~ John Lydon

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

Before the Sex Pistols, music was so bloody serious, all run by university graduates. It was all head music devoid of any real intellectualism. There was no deep though in it, merely images pertaining to something mystical, too stupid and absolutely devoid of reality. How on earth were we supposed to relate to that music when we lived in council flats? We had no money, no job, no nothing. So the Pistols projected that anger, that rock-bottom working-class hate. ~ John Lydon

Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative. ~ John Lydon

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

I love discordancy. It makes people ill at ease and wakes up a part of their brain that's normally asleep. ~ John Lydon

What do you have to do to get people to take an interest? I'm not going to go out and cause a silly sex scandal just to sell a record! ~ John Lydon

All the things that you would have thought would have made me a professional A1 criminal ... wrong. I decided that was too lazy and easy, and because of the way British society is, quite frankly you were denied an education, so I got one of my own. ~ John Lydon

Simon Le Bon spotted me having a problem there, and he went, 'Don't you know who he is?' and that was it, I was in. I thought, 'Bloody hell, it takes Duran Duran to get Johnny Rotten into a building!' I liked him as a bloke, and I like a lot of their songs. I like 'Girls On Film', and I can't pretend otherwise. ~ John Lydon

Occasionally, a re-enactment is a fine thing. I love Civil War re-enactments. ~ John Lydon

Love is two minutes fifty-two seconds of squishing noises. It shows your mind isn't clicking right. ~ John Lydon

I've turned arrogance into an artform, where it's so absurd that it becomes comedy. But I've never done anything to hurt anybody or steal from anyone. ~ John Lydon

It's nice to be a part of history but people should get it right. I may not be perfect, but I'm bloody close. ~ John Lydon

I love books, and all the best ones are people analysing their own emotions. You can learn from that. ~ John Lydon

We're Sex Pistols, we ain't fake. ~ John Lydon

I'm sort of of the belief that people kill themselves from the inside out. When they're unhappy with what they're doing, or not achieving things - when your focus is off-kilter. The thing that keeps me ticking is my values. And I maintain them, because they're worthy. I like to wake up and feel I've done no wrong. I like that feeling. ~ John Lydon

Love is 2 minutes and 52 seconds of squelching noises. ~ John Lydon

If my leg falls off, I'll get a prosthetic. There'd be no deep sadness about. I'd just get on with it! It's called life, and I love life. You have to be positive, and you have to crack on no matter what. ~ John Lydon

Move to Italy. I mean it: they know about living in debt; they don't care. I stayed out there for five months while I was making a film called 'Order Of Death,' and they've really got it sussed. Nice cars. Sharp suits. Great food. Stroll into work at 10. Lunch from 12 till three. Leave work at five. That's living! ~ John Lydon

As a young concert-going person, I was never enamoured with celebrities who would walk out to feature in certain songs and then walk off. ~ 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

The sounds of anger are not melodic. ~ John Lydon

I've always despised the hippies. ~ John Lydon

Just because people think politically different to you doesn't mean they're inhuman. ~ John Lydon

I wanted to wear the most impenetrable suit of armour ever known to mankind. 'Hello, Mr. Rotten ... ' You can't say anything about me. You can't put me down in any way shape or form - I'm rotten to the core ... you know, what's left for you? Pleasantries? I suppose the worst insult you could sling my way is 'Oh, he's really nice, him.' ~ John Lydon

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

I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hate. ~ John Lydon

The only notes that matter come in a wad ~ John Lydon

I'd love to have been born into a wealthy family. I might have turned out even more marvellous than I am now ... ~ John Lydon

We need wealthy dogs off the seats of power. They're taking us back to feudalism and I really don't want that. But I'm very far from being a socialist. ~ John Lydon

Words cannot express quite a lot of feelings, whereas a noise or tone or drone or sound, an accordion falling down a staircase, can somehow capture an emotion much better. ~ John Lydon

I love a bit of flag-waving. ~ John Lydon

Disco sucks? You never heard that from me. ~ John Lydon

You gotta bear in mind, the youth - and this is just in Britain alone - have nowhere to go in the evenings. They've closed all the social centers. There's not even a patch of grass to kick a ball on. ~ John Lydon

I don't like the monikers, and I don't like being pigeonholed. You know, I'm a human being. ~ John Lydon

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

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. ~ John Lydon

[Replying to the question of the presenter: "where did the name "Sex Pistols" come from, who thought this name up?"] Some animal. I can't remember. It doesn't matter. It's history. ~ John Lydon

I'm 100% proud of the TV work I achieved. The work I did on shows on insects and Great White sharks ... stuff that's in school curriculums in England. Now they are showing up on Discovery Channel. ~ John Lydon

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. ~ John Lydon

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. ~ John Lydon

I'm not going to pontificate and tell you to execute your government at dawn, but it wouldn't be a bad idea. ~ John Lydon

I'm just permanently agitated by everything and everyone. ~ 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

My biggest fear is mindlessly and stupidly repeating myself. ~ John Lydon

And then you've got a media ready to package that, because it takes away from the political content of them songs. Suddenly there's not a real serious social message, there's just a drug addict. I ~ John Lydon

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

You never know how things will work out. After all the bad reasons in the world, some good came out. ~ John Lydon

I love America. I love Americans. ~ John Lydon