Rei Kawakubo Quotes

To me punk rock is thinking outside of the box, outside of the program, outside the establishment.

Punk became a circus didn't it? Everybody got it wrong. The message was supposed to be: Don't follow us, do what you want!

PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason and ask questions.

On a scale of one to ten, how punk am I? Apple. I don't use your scale.

Don't get caught up in fashion games. These kids probably think we're old, nark conformists or something, but really, they're just conforming in their own ways. They're conforming to nonconformity.

Punk rock will never die, until something more dangerous replaces it.

I don't really give a f**k about the mainstream. The mainstream doesn't offer me anything. Why would I offer it anything? I love the world I have. I love the sort of subculture that Green Day represents.

I saw the best minds of my generation who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on their heads every day for the next decade.

When people are very original, sometimes they are original as a way to resist the mainstream.

All punk rockers hate Christmas.

Ideally, musicians belong outside the Establishment. When they cross that line, it's like something in them has died.

I never thought of punk rock as the absolute act of rebellion for the sake of rebellion. There's a lot of that in there, but for me I think punk rock was always about questioning things and making decisions for yourself, which is a great message to pass on to your kids.

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 allowed women to stop looking feminine. Oh, the relief.

Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality.

Punk was never about one particular clean-cut imagery... it's about many, many individuals coming very loosely together.

Good fashion is like rock music: all anarchy and revolt.

For me the safety pin is about rebellion, and I'm punk in the soul.

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.

I don't ever wanna be mainstream.

Punk is the way of those who are unable to express themselves, but they aren't dangerous; at worst, they may kill their audience.

Slackers might look like the left-behinds of society, but they are actually one step ahead, rejecting most of society and the social hierarchy before it rejects them. The dictionary defines slackers as people who evade duties and responsibilities. A more modern notion would be people who are ultimately being responsible to themselves and not wasting their time in a realm of activity that has nothing to do with who they are or what they might be ultimately striving for.

To me, the punk rock kids I grew up with were really, really smart, and to me, respecting those kids was a really big deal.

Americans want grungy people, stabbing themselves in the head on stage. They get a bright bunch like us, with deodorant on, they don't get it. I'm 24 years old, I've got a load a money, what am I gonna do, sit at home and twiddle me thumbs? No. I'm gonna go out and 'ave it.

The American indie underground made music for like-minded people who thought for themselves. Thinking for yourself is intrinsically subversive.