Henry Rollins Quotes

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

When punk came along, I found my generation's music. I grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, 'cause that was what got played in the house. But when I first saw the Stranglers, I thought, 'This is it.'

The Minutemen were seen as more of an art thing than Black Flag, although I didn't see them that way. It confused people when we put out Saccharine Trust, too.

I always think the Sex Pistols and the Ramones as very, very important because they stripped things down.

It's not every day you get to create a band like the Sex Pistols, and what it changed, on a musical level. I love that we've done something that was important.

I think people are too hard on the Pistols. The Pistols started the whole punk thing and never saw much money.

I was pretty taken with Patti Smith, she was my heroine.

People called me the godmother of punk, but I never name myself anything.

I made the big turnaround in the early Nineties when I started hearing all the tenth generation punk bands like Green Day and Offspring and all those people. It just made me fall in love with punk again and remember my roots, and since that time I've always wanted to do more of that kind of music again.

It's funny I'm talking to 'Rolling Stone' right now, because back then, it was like, 'Punk rock? Put it back. It's just a flash in the pan.'

I think punk rock needs an 'Amadeus.'

The Germs' contribution to history sucks as far as I'm concerned.

I have a special place in my heart for the Straight Edge Society. Never reached its full potential.

Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day always says we were influences on him, because he does melodic but distorted, like what we were doing. The Ramones were doing it. We were doing it. The Buzzcocks, all those bands.

The Sex Pistols came through Atlanta, and I got to go see them. That was historic. It blew me away; it was so much fun. I bought 45s of bands you don't hear about anymore.

When punk started, it wasn't subtle.

The Ramones were inspiring a lot of bands that couldn't master their instruments.

People get to a certain age and success that they stop being curious. I'm still curious because I haven't really had that success. I've never done a record to catch whatever the latest sound is. It's my love of music, eclectic-ness, and the music that I heard my entire life that seeps in. That's what you're hearing.

There's a punk-rock attitude, clearly, to 'Hated.' There's even a punk-rock attitude to 'The Hangover,' I think. We start the movie with a Glenn Danzig song.

There are a lot of bands who claim to be punk and they only play the music, they have no clue what it's all about. It's a lifestyle. It's not about popularity and all that crap.

I went to UC Berkeley for college, and it was during the period when the whole punk movement was happening.

The last true punk band to get a major label contract was The Dickies.

I can't think of anything I hate more than a former punk - they are the most self-righteous people in the world.

The photograph, the clothes, the sets - this was about 1974, and I started hanging out with my friend Richard Sold, who was playing in a band with Patti Smith.

There are several books out on punk history, but I haven't read any of them. I was there.