John Lydon

“Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative.”

“I've been in very many situations where I've not liked the other members of the band or they have not liked me. I grew up presuming that's the way music was made. It doesn't need to be that...”

“All the things that you would have thought would have made me a professional A1 criminal... wrong. I decided that was too lazy and easy, and because of the way British society is, quite fran...”

“Listen, you know this: If there's not a rebellious youth culture, there's no culture at all. It's absolutely essential. It is the future. This is what we're supposed to do as a species, is a...”

“The record companies fell apart - quite deservedly. Their corrupting, all-binding contract nonsense had to stop.”

“Gossip is a very dangerous tool. We should be more wary of the gossiper, and not the gossip they're trying to relay to you.”

“My biggest fear is mindlessly and stupidly repeating myself.”

“It's a repressive society where you can't be horrible, I'm not horrible, they made me horrible, I'm just honest.”

“There are some Rolling Stones songs that are just stunners.”

“People think I hate the Royal Family, but that's not true.”

“It's quite clear to me I'm not a sexist and I'm not a misogynist.”

“If you have something to say then you want someone to pay attention or at least to have the opportunity for them to tell you to shut up and go away.”

“Music is a simulation of something, but language is the greatest thing we possess.”

“I love American ski resorts because they're open to everyone, are not incredibly expensive. They're not snobby and you can have fun all day long on the most excellent mountains.”

“I've created several musical trends, really. That's not because I'm so far out and fabulous. It's because most bands have no ideas of their own. They're so desperate they'll grab at any old...”

“Move to Italy. I mean it: they know about living in debt; they don't care. I stayed out there for five months while I was making a film called 'Order Of Death,' and they've really got it sus...”

“For a gun-toting nation, Americans are surprisingly passive.”

“You can always wake up on the wrong side of the bed and, boo-hiss, everyone suffers. We can all be temperamental.”

“If I'm left to my own devices, I will be tempted to make the most unlistenable music possible.”

“No matter what you experience in life, it incorporates political tendencies, and in so many ways.”