Joe Strummer
The hippy movement was a failure.Collection: Failure
Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control. And it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realized that you either became a power or you were crushed.Collection: Age
The future is unwritten.Collection: Future
If you ain't thinkin' about man and God and law, then you ain't thinkin' about nothin'.
All hippies around now just represent complete apathy.
When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there.
To me, our music is like Jamaican stuff - if they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it.
I don't want to look back. I want to keep going forward, I still have something to say to people.
Politically at that time, with Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the White House, it wasn't looking too great for the Left. And we were always on the left.
I get on all right with my parents. But I don't see them very much. They split up when I was eight. I stayed with my mum, but I felt it was a bit soft with her. I could do whatever I liked, and I wasn't getting nowhere, so I went to stay with my dad.
What I like about playing America is you can be pretty sure you're not going to get hit with a full can of beer when you're singing and I really enjoy that!
You can only follow what's on your mind. In fact, a song is something you write because you can't sleep unless you write it.
I found that I was just hopeless at school. It was just a total bore. First, I passed in art and English, and then just art. Then I passed out.
You don't write on tour; it takes all your concentrating to make the gig - that's survival technique. Afterwards, you run around town to find interesting hipsters and go to all the interesting spots. You got to go to every hotspot until everything has closed down.
We didn't have any solution to the world's problems. I mean, we were trying to grow up in a socialist way to some future where the world might be less of a miserable place than it is.
Yeah, all those things, responsibility, pressure. It's a bit stressful. I try and come to terms with it by not thinking about it.
I began thinking there should be an American phrase book, 'cause I've got an Italian phrase book, and an Arabic one... now a British one. I think it'd be pretty good to have an American phrase book.
I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't.
I think we're going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth.
With The Simpsons you can go back to work with a keen heart.
The only place I considered home was the boarding school, in Yorkshire, my parents sent me to.
We sing in English, not mimicking some American rock singer's accent. That's just pretending to be something you ain't.
I'm proud of all our records. Even the crap ones.
When we played Paris, the English punks would come over, and they got to know the French punks. There was some nice scenes in the back alleys.
We did eight gigs in super-stadiums, all the biggest joints - L.A. Coliseum, Oakland Coliseum, Shea Stadium.
In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human beings.Collection: Mean
Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'Collection: Attitude
The way you get a better world is, you don't put up with substandard anything.Collection: World
When I started, they told me I only needed 3 chords and the truth... It turned out I could manage with 2 and some vague ideas.Collection: Ideas
Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.Collection: Past
Don't forget you're alive. 'Cause sometimes when you walk around the city and you're in a bad mood, you can think, hey, wait a minute, we're alive! We don't know what the next second will bring and what a fantastic thing this is. This can get easily forgotten in the routine of life, and that's something I'm trying to bring to my attention at all times. Don't forget you're alive. We're not dead, you know. This is the greatest thing.Collection: Thinking
I'd like to say that people... people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there'll be people in it. And it's the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they're not on the world... It's time to take that humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time... Think on that. Without people you're nothing.Collection: Country
I don't have any other message than don't forget you are aliveCollection: Alive
Don't write slogans, write truths.Collection: Writing
We`re all going to have to learn to live together and develop a greater tolerance and get rid off whatever our fathers gave us in the way of hatred between nations.Collection: Father
The toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.Collection: Tough
Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushedCollection: Power
I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.Collection: Care
A lot of the time I'm semi-insane, but there is a slight bit of intelligence there.Collection: Insane
Strummer's Law: No input, no output.Collection: Law
People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world.Collection: Mean
All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it.Collection: Hands
It is fun to be alive. It's a hell of a lot better than being dead.Collection: Fun
If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat.Collection: Nice
My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.Collection: Thinking
When you're out to get the honey you don't go killing all the beesCollection: Honey
There is nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.Collection: Perseverance
Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing.Collection: Squares
There isn't a town in the world I haven't run amok in.Collection: Music
For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.Collection: Chance