John Cooper Clarke

“It took me 30 years for people to consider me an overnight success.”

“Lyrics became important for a while in the late Seventies. Patti Smith was a poet and a rock star, as much one as the other, the distinctions were a bit blurred and then you get swept up in...”

“I'm not giving away sartorial secrets but the trousers I wear cost 19 quid.”

“The main thing a poem ought to be is musical. It should be rhythmic. You should hear it as a musical piece in your head as you're writing it.”

“I went to what can only be described as a slum school in Salford - rough and full of trainee punks - but I was very lucky in that I had one inspiring teacher, John Malone, who gave the whole...”

“If you want to know why the coast is such an inspirational place, ask Herman Melville, Jack London, Nordhoff and Hall, Robert Louis Stevenson or Joseph Conrad. It's a glimpse of eternity. It...”

“Somebody up there likes me. It ain't like I've followed a well trodden trajectory.”

“Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.”

“I got to play The Vortex in London with the Buzzcocks, the Fall, me and Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers. That was a serious Manchester night.”