Quotes By Billie Joe Armstrong

A punk concert isn't fun without a pit.

I don't want to limit myself musically. It would be really limiting if we'd neglect something we really want to do, like explore other styles of music.

Moshing and broken glass just don't go together.

I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman.

The first time that you escape from home or the small town that you live in - there's a reason a small town is called a small town: It's because not many people want to live there.

What is going on in America is extreme. The youth cult, they worship youth so much it's almost paranoid. And LA is the Mecca of it all; they're taking it to the hilt.

We put everything we had into this record, just like we do with every other record that we make.

I'm not going to conform to some consumer need.

I never thought being obnoxious would get me where I am today.

We're not a political band. We don't want to tell people what to do or what to think. We just want to tell them to think.

If journalists ask you again and again about the same bands, you'll end up saying you hate them just because you're so fed up with being asked all those stupid questions.

What annoys the hell out of me is the arrogance of some people. They don't even listen to our music, they decided in advance that they don't like it.

I'm a father. It isn't just my life any more. I don't want my kid finding bottles in the house or seeing his father completely smashed.

I approach playing acoustic guitar more of as a percussive instrument. It's fragile. I don't have a lot of finesse when it comes to my guitar playing.

There's nothing wrong with being a loser, it just depends on how good you are at it.

The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.

People are so damned afraid that one day they might wake up and discover that they've grown old.

And you don't want to always write about politics just for the sake of writing about politics.

The thing about punk is that there are purists. Once you start going outside of that, they don't think what you're doing is punk rock.

School is practice for future life, practice makes perfect and nobodys perfect, so why practice?

I'd love to go to art school. I'd love to learn how to draw. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish. I'd like to be a brain surgeon.

I would definitely say the Oakland Raiders are the punk rock band of football.

I hate celebrities. I really hate them.

Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality.

Making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.

There are a lot of bands who claim to be punk and they only play the music, they have no clue what it's all about. It's a lifestyle. It's not about popularity and all that crap.

Formats are constantly changing, and there are really no rules for the way you put your records out anymore.

There's an honesty in our family - my kids and I are able to talk about things without me putting the fear of God into them.

Punk will never be dead to me. It's my life. I can never just drop this lifestyle. It embodies me.

I've been playing rock and roll since I was 16 years old, and now I have a 16-year-old.