Lydia Lunch

“The American way of life, as I see it, is really the American way of death. Everything is determined by greed and the insatiable desire to be the richest and most powerful. And that desire i...”

“I'm nihilistic, antagonistic, violent, horrible - but not obliterated, yet. I just refuse to be beaten down. I think it's stubborness that keeps me going.”

“I just prefer instrumental. I don't need to hear what other people are singing. And if I need music as a backdrop to work or to think, I need to have that part of the brain clear - I don't n...”

“I'm a very sympathetic person, but that doesn't always come across in my work because I'm too busy being mad at everything.”

“Two of my favourite books are Henry Miller's 'Tropic of Cancer' and 'Tropic of Capricorn.'”

“Aggressive female icons have been chronically demeaned... It's fine for male artists to be angry - they're encouraged to outwardly express their aggression - but women? I've been painted as...”

“I would be humiliated if I found out that anything I did actually became a commercial success.”

“Because we have so much eye candy and mind candy, spending so much time trying to pay the rent, all of this conspires to keep us from thinking too hard or taking action from that. Our time i...”

“The female format is a beautiful one in which to function. Foolhardy as it may be. I change my image all the time, it's whatever suits me at the moment.”

“I think it's important to encourage gluttony in all its formats.”

“If someone says 'grunge' or 'punk,' you know what the sound is, but if you say 'No Wave,' it's kind of mysterious. That was the most interesting part and should have been the most inspiratio...”

“Honesty works against you in the entertainment field. I try to be a journalist and a documentarian, but that doesn't mean that people are going to embrace it at the moment. The point is I'm...”

“I believe happiness is a chemical imbalance - it's a silly thing to strife for. But satisfaction - if you seek satisfaction, you can succeed. Satisfaction is knowing that you're doing the be...”

“I watch the news. It fuels my rage; it informs my work.”

“If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.'”

“I'm separated by other performers with whom I might be lumped, since what I say is so intensely personal. I'm anti-art and anti-poetry. As much as possible, I want to inflict my personal pai...”

“I'm like a one-woman protest machine.”

“If people could understand how much pleasure they could have by themselves, I think everyone would be a lot saner. I think that people really need a dose of quality time with one's self.”

“I'm a total pleasure seeker. I pursue anything that satisfies me. I usually get it. I have specific needs and I know what they are so I can achieve satisfaction.”

“Part of the charm of what I do is the fact that it's completely unrelated to everything that came before.”