Billy Corgan Quotes

26 Sourced Quotes

This is not a reaction against a negative world. It's a response to a negative world.

Billy Corgan
People act like Nirvana invented grunge; they just took it and personified it.

Billy Corgan
I have a hard time thinking of men trying to sing my songs, because I think my perspective is very much feminine... For me the idea of having a feminine perspective is a willingness to be vulnerable. It's very easy to cock-rock and posture. I can't help but wear my heart on my sleeve—I'm like nervous endings. That's just the way that I am and, to me, that's very female because it's not a male thing to do. A male thing to do would be to fuckin' posture.

Billy Corgan
About six months ago, I listened to Siamese Dream. That was the first time I'd ever really heard my own album, because I had separated from the experience of making the record. And it really moved me. It made me cry, it's so beautiful.

Billy Corgan
... Instead of taking the 'I'm cool, I hope you adore me' path (with my music), I chose the path of how to connect. I think that's the reason a lot of people feel a deeper connection with our band than other bands, and I also feel that's why people polarize on us. If you don't get it, it seems preposterous; if you do get it, it's really heavy — it has a weight to it.

Billy Corgan
I don't necessarily believe that the sting of failure is a bad thing. It gives you a certain amount of freedom to just say fuck it!

Billy Corgan
... What people miss about (Marilyn) Manson is that he is just reflecting, he's an artist, people want to focus that energy on him, but it's not really him, it's really about you. So for every guy sitting there with a beer and a.45 in his belt, Manson is just speaking to that end of society. He's speaking as an artist. He's not speaking as himself, and that's where people get really lost with Manson.

Billy Corgan
There's a really a cold, cold side to my personality that I'm not really comfortable with. I'm constantly dealing with that side of my personality versus my overly sentimental side… There's just a side that's a real motherfucker side; it's nothing I want to admit or even look at. It's where a lot of my strength lies. It's been the part of me that's been able to steel my spine against situations that probably would have broken a lot of people, or caused them to jump off the loop.

Billy Corgan
People always called The Cure gloomy, but listening to The Cure made me happy. There was something about the gloominess that gave me comfort, and I think we're the same way.

Billy Corgan
The closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets.

Billy Corgan
I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins.

Billy Corgan
For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done all right.

Billy Corgan
It's about the girlfriend who left me last year. I tried to put all my anger in those words, even though I'm just as much to blame for the break-up. 'Soma' is based on the idea that a love relationship is almost the same as opium: it slowly puts you to sleep, it soothes you, and gives you the illusion of sureness and security. Very deceivable.

Billy Corgan
To me, music was about being accepted and escaping from this crummy existence.

Billy Corgan
The Pumpkins love rock-and-roll, we absolutely love it, but we also think it's a flatulent, ego-serving kiddie playground. You can have your cake and eat it too.

Billy Corgan
I'm Irish and I was born on St. Patrick's Day. I'm lucky sevens.

Billy Corgan
My earliest memory is of feeling different. My parents told me that I wasn't like other children.

Billy Corgan
I think the original, 'They're the next Jane's Addiction' things that people said about us in the beginning have been pretty much wiped out.

Billy Corgan
We're like a really nice drink. We help people get through the day—we make life a little sunnier. I don't think we have any profound effect. If anybody has had a profound effect, it's The Beatles, and their effect is still minimal. There are things in the world way more important than music. Family is 50 times more important than music.

Billy Corgan
We have a problem with any labels that people try to hang on us, because all it does is drag you down.

Billy Corgan
When you move artistically, the natural inclination is to denounce everything that's gone before.

Billy Corgan
One of the other reasons that we quit having journalists come here is because they would kind of hang out for several days, and they'd see me around at the clubs, and the story would get written and it would be me and my 'disciples' or my 'acolytes.' The word acolyte - that's like fuck you. These are my friends, but because they're not Billy Corgan or Helena Christensen, they become my 'posse' or my 'followers,' and it's like, fuck you for insulting my friends like that. That's so fucking incredible to me.

Billy Corgan
My mother came to a Smashing Pumpkins gig once, and I was wearing a dress. She was very upset. She said, 'Everyone's gonna think you're a fag.' I said,'Well, they already think I'm an asshole.'

Billy Corgan
Music is 99% of my life. But I know I need a break. Besides, if you give people too much, they start to not want it. We need to restrain ourselves.

Billy Corgan
Actually, I was having dinner with Michael (Stipe, of R. E. M.) when our second album went platinum, which up until that point was the highest success we'd ever had. And he turned to me during dinner and said, 'Welcome to the deep waters, kid.' I'll never forget that.

Billy Corgan
The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.

Billy Corgan