John Lydon Quotes

28 Sourced Quotes

I'm not here for your amusement. You're here for mine.

John Lydon
Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night!

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
I think there's something basically wrong with the general public that they do need their icons.

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
You don't write "God Save The Queen" because you hate the English race, you write a song like that because you love them; and you're fed up with them being mistreated.

John Lydon
There's no future in England's dreaming No future, no future, no future for you No future, no future, no future for me

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
It's no more of that 12 bar ditty wavy hair in the breeze platform boots flap your flare nonsense. It's not a packaged image of third-rate idiots. It's not a pose. We just do our stuff. Hate it as it usually is, you know I was very shocked by the reviews of the last album. I believe none of them. They liked us for the wrong reasons, trendy reasons.

John Lydon
Any kind of history you read is basically the winning side telling you the others were bad.

John Lydon
If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago.

John Lydon
I've never told anyone this, but I suffer from terrible stage fright. True. You can't tell though, can you? Unbelievable, the panic. I nearly die of fear before I go on stage. Something wicked. I can't eat a thing the day before a gig. It'd make me vomit. Once I come off? I could eat a scampied elephant between two buttered mattresses. But I'm kinda glad about the stage fright. I've read Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud about their terror. And I reckon it's what gets the adrenalin going.

John Lydon
No one in this band is a musician. We all hate the term. We're something close to factory workers. Machinists. Skilled operators.

John Lydon
[On the lyrics of his songs] They meant a lot to my generation. And it's nice to know you've written songs that mean something to someone rather than some trivial pop dirge. I'm not thriving off a career slagging off the Queen. 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
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.

John Lydon
Turn the other cheek too often and you get a razor through it.

John Lydon
I am an Anti-Christ
I am an anarchist
Don't know what I want but I know where to get it
I wanna destroy passers-by
Because I wanna be anarchy!

John Lydon
If you accept the forms that be, then you're doomed to your own ultimate blandness.

John Lydon
When I first heard it, I thought that's extremely challenging, the vocal — it was almost hysterical, and it was so up there, the register, but it was absolutely fascinating. And I know at the time a lot of my friends couldn't bear it, they thought it was just "too much" — but that's exactly what drew me in.

John Lydon
When there's no future
How can there be sin
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in your human machine
We're the future
Your future
God Save the Queen.

John Lydon
I like crazy people, especially those who don't see the risk.

John Lydon
Love is two minutes fifty-two seconds of squishing noises.

John Lydon
Punks in their silly leather jackets are a cliché. I have never liked the term and have never discussed it. I just got on with it and got out of it when it became a competition.

John Lydon
My favourite album by her is The Dreaming, and I think she produced that one herself. That got a lot of criticism — but I loved it. It was overloaded with textures, and tones and all manner of things. It's a record that I still can play to this day, and still hear new things.

John Lydon
We're pretty... pretty vacant
And we don't care.

John Lydon
Punk is like looking at a mirror. I already have a mirror so I don't need the Offspring to remind me how gorgeous I am.

John Lydon
There's no love at all... You can't love anything. Love is what you feel for a dog or a pussy cat. It doesn't apply to humans, and if it does it just shows how low you are.

John Lydon
England's a violent place. Too violent for me. That's why I prefer it here (the USA). For a gun-toting nation, Americans are surprisingly passive. This place suits me and the wife.

John Lydon