John Niven Quotes

I've learned some of the greatest life lessons from growing up in the skate and punk rock communities.

My inspiration is life. My family, my friends, travelling, books, music, love, food, fashion. What inspires you?

Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin.

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.

We were just a bunch of high school kids who got into the Ramones together.

I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

I still love it. I love lots of other music, too, and always have, but punk's the soundtrack of my youth. I think you never escape the music you're listening to and seeing when you're seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old.

I'm not an anarchist any more. I still love the Sex Pistols, but I don't want to be a punk rocker all the time, but I do want to carry on exploring new forms of acting.

I will always love the Clash, because I loved them so much when I was fourteen, and I love how you can start a conversation with almost literally any dude about the Clash.

When I was 18, I took a trip to Thailand with a friend. We stayed for a month. Bangkok was very raw for a teenager: there were no cellphones, no Internet, and the only music I had with me was this cassette by Liz Phair. I was writing a lot of poetry, and she embodied a talky style of songwriting that I found very accessible.

I grew up loving classic rock music - The Beatles, The Rolling Stones - and then one day I heard 'Baby One More Time' on the radio and I thought 'What is this?' I was eight and it changed my life.

My entire life, socially, was all around the Maggie era. That was the great challenge as a Sex Pistol was how to deal with Margaret Thatcher. I think we did rather good.

I'm passionate about learning. I'm passionate about life.

I use filming as an excuse to take classes. I got my certification in sailing for 'Wedding Crashers,' and now I can handle a 26-foot boat. I played a seamstress once, so I took sewing classes. I love dipping into these other lives.

Inspiration comes from everywhere. From life, observing people, etc. From movies and books you love. From research.

If you want break it down, rock and roll is about saying what you can't say in normal life to girls, so you have to say it in songs.

When I grew up in the early '90s, the new World Wide Web felt like a gimmick, and I had no idea of the changes in store. In the summers, I'd backpack through Europe, follow the Grateful Dead. I had a car and a tent and traveled around the Great Lakes and out West. Jack Kerouac was my guiding light, his 'On the Road' a sacred text.

After college, I drove across the country twice with friends. It was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life. I find it really inspiring seeing the country that way.

Even as we get older, we get in these routines - and routines are nice and comfortable - but I think that it's important to live life to its fullest and try different things. Because you never know what you're going to learn. You might not like it, you might like it.

My parents were worried about me, certainly when I became so deeply interested in music and people like the New York Dolls who, at the time, were very peculiar indeed.

The sport I love has taken me around the world and shown me many things.

I've always been a rocker. Like ever since I was really young. I had a crush on the Green Day guys. That's always been what I was like and been my interest.

Revolution is like a love story, When you are in love, your become a much better person. And when you are in revolution, you become a much better person.

Live life to the full, and become more curious every day. The more you find out about life, the richer your music-making will be.

I spent my teens in northern California listening to KALX, KUSF, and KFJC, finding people that changed my life.