David Byrne Quotes

I don't think punk ever really dies, because punk rock attitude can never die.

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

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.

Punk was originally about creating new, important, energetic music that would hopefully threaten the status quo and the stupidity of the 1970s.

All punk music is is rebellion, going against the grain. It takes different forms. Sometimes it's a band throwing their instruments around or making really violent and noisy sounds, but it doesn't have to take that sonic form. It can take more of an energy.

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

Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'

The jury had down right contempt for punk rock grass roots ethics.

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.

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.

By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.

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

Punk music is rebellious.

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

I think punk rock, especially for me, was a big middle finger to this whole talent thing.

Punk was more based on social change than on music, so it didn't bother me too much. It wasn't really a musical threat.

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.

The punk era, at its best, celebrated questioning the norm and the promotion of originality. Both concepts have always resonated with me.

You can't be a punk all your life.

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

Is punk dressing up in leather jackets? No. It's having a counter-cultural perspective.

When things socially and politically get difficult, punk music suddenly comes back again, and there's just a really healthy pivot away from music that's not humanly understandable.

It's like our little thing: you can take the girl out of the punk, but you can't take the punk out of the girl.

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.

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.