Punk Quotes

To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'.

It's very cliched to go, 'You're not punk.' We don't care if we are, and we don't care if we aren't.

Punk rock really came out of N.Y. as a philosophy before the groups were ever recorded. I had a kind-of intellectual interest in the idea of creating a new scene that could be a grassroots thing.

I'd been thinking I'd have to learn how to play really well, but obviously the message of punk was that you just learn three chords in a week and you're away.

When I met Apple, I made it very clear that I am an old punk and I have never done commercials or been sponsored. And I wasn't after their money.

My whole back's tattooed. I just wanted a twist. I was always in punk bands when I was little... I think that's where the tie comes from.

I think people are too hard on the Pistols. The Pistols started the whole punk thing and never saw much money.

Style has always been very important to us. We grew up in the '70s. Music was glam rock, punk rock and a very stylish movement.

I was a punk rocker when I was a teenager. I wanted to look like Nancy Spungen. I had dyed blonde hair and lots of piercings.

Most of the people who call me a sellout were 7 when I was down face-first in the punk trenches.

I think punk rock, especially for me, was a big middle finger to this whole talent thing.

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

By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.

It's really hard to imagine there ever being the kind of impact there was when punk rock happened in the late 70's. I wish there would be one big change like that again, but I don't know if that'll ever happen.

I kind of remember a friend of mine saying, like, you guys should make a rap record. You know, because we were already making punk records. We were a punk band. And I kind of thought, that's crazy.

My dad took me to all the best rock and punk shows when I was growing up and music has always been a part of my life. So I'm very interested in the music scene and I suppose that's why I've ended up going out with musicians. Dave Pirner is still one of my best friends.

Punk rock seemed to make sense. I was listening to The Clash and I really loved their social messages and they have a great history of fighting racism.

I was a punk. I think that's why I'm such a good person now, because I was such a bad guy then.

I was once a student in a punk T-Shirt hooked on screwed-up scenarios. That's how I became the esteemed cultural figure that I am today.

Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster's terms, 'nirvana' means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that's pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

The last true punk band to get a major label contract was The Dickies.

My son has followed fashion since he was a punk. He and I agree that fashion is about sex.

The only way to be punk rock in L.A. is to be a Republican.

There's also some element of coming of age during the Reagan administration, which everybody has painted as some glorious time in America, but I remember as being a very, very dark time. There was apocalypse in the air; the punk rock movement made sense.

I just think that playing bass, like punk rock bass with a pick, wasn't meant to be done for 25 years.

The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.

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.

Punk is not really a style of music. It was more like a state of mind.

When punk really started to happen, it was a reaction against the disco craze of the time.

I think that clearly it has an influence, to be coming of age during the punk rock era, to come from a difficult and sporadically violent background, to have been in and out of such chaos, I think it actually helps. But I don't know for sure.