Jello Biafra Quotes

Punk rock was the tsunami that threatened to drown us all in 1977.

When Punk Rock happened, it created an opening in the culture... it made it ok to think you could play music, even though you had no musical training.

Will punk rock ever die? Pal, if you have to ask it's dead to you.

The Beatles' story is all of our stories. It is about how the youth culture emerged, the drug culture emerged, how politics rose to the fore as a universal debate. It's about rebellion, it's about the growth of the British entertainment system, the growth of the rock n' roll entertainment system.

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

Punk rock is just another word for freedom.

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

Punk and all that was just an image that ripped people off. Johnny Rotten's a wanker, and that's all there is to it.

(Punk rock is) lunging after some glimpse of a new and better world.

It wasn't just music in The Ramones: it was an idea. It was bringing back a whole feel that was missing in rock music – it was a whole push outwards to say something new and different. Originally it was just an artistic type of thing; finally I felt it was something that was good enough for everybody.

You know there was always a confusion that punk was a style of music.

Punk was over in two years. That was the only damn good thing about it.

When punk really started to happen, it was a reaction against the disco craze of the time.

When you break it all down, my punk rock is my dad's blues. It's music from the underground, and it's real, and it's written for the downtrodden in uncertain times.

In my parents' generation, rebellion was pop culture. It's not anymore.

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

When I was fifteen, I used to run around reading 'Adbusters' and dumpster diving, trying to find ways to make the U.S. government unwind into chaos through hardcore punk and metal.

Punk is not really a style of music. It was more like a state of mind.

The reason why I am proud of my part in the punk movement is that I think it really did implant a message that was already there. The hippies told it to me, but punk made it something cool for people to stand up for, which is that we do not believe government, that we are against government.

So many big magazines just dissed the whole punk thing as nothing, but really, it was a big thing. It really changed, and that's what we wanted to do - change the system.

When the punk rock thing happened, I thought, 'Right, I have one chance here to be seen as part of some wider social phenomenon.'

We need punk now; we need it more than ever. We need rebellion by youth.

Some visualize the Pistols era in shades of black and white. It wasn't. Actually, the colors I envision are neon or army dirt green with fluorescent pink--anything that would annoy."

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.

If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge.