Ben Hopkins Quotes

'Punk' doesn't mean Mohawks and safety pins. It's about not conforming.

Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle.

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

I can't live in a world of dullards. So I think on that level, I'm definitely punk.

To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It's freedom.

Punk will never be dead to me. It's my life. I can never just drop this lifestyle. It embodies me.

Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.

When I was a child, I was one of the kids who wore black all the time, and when the kids asked me why I wore black, I said things like, 'I'm mourning the death of modern society.' I mean, I was a riot.

The thread of culture that runs through the entire history of punk is also a dedication to challenging the authoritarian.

The only way to be punk rock in L.A. is to be a Republican.

Punk rock is very rebellious, of course, but it also means thinking for yourself.

What was punk all about? To me, it was if you really want to do something, go ahead and do it.

People can have their punk ideals, but I don't really care about that kind of thing.

You can't be a punk all your life.

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.

To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'.

Initially, electronic music was anti-establishment, as punk rock and rock n' roll were. The music was shut down; the police were against the parties.

I was raised on Nirvana and flannel shirts and Rage Against the Machine, and I sort of describe my youth as rebellious and always fighting the system.

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.

I always said punk was an attitude. It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that.

The problem is we moved to LA... The only way to be punk rock in L.A. is to be a Republican.

I hate the word 'hippy'. I hate a lot of people, and hippies don't do that!

Everything the Beats stood for was the opposite of the dominant culture today.

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.