Joe Strummer Quotes

If you're trying to get to the underworld of Berlin, it's not suits and ties; it's rock and roll.

I started going to Madame Louise's, the lesbian club where all the punk bands used to go - the Sex Pistols, the Clash. I remember seeing Billy Idol walk in there; he was gorgeous.

There are always young bands playing in their garages. A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It's below the radar. The beauty of it is that you're not supposed to always know. It's subterranean.

A lot of people think that punk rock musicians don't know what they're doing.

I was once a student in a punk T-Shirt hooked on screwed-up scenarios. That's how I became the esteemed cultural figure that I am today.

We were at the dark end of the L.A. punk scene, and that scene was full-on and violent and aggressive and wild and intense.

I used to hang out with a bunch of old punk rockers when I was a little kid.

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

Growing up in San Diego, I can remember going with my brother to see bands like Pennywise and NOFX - good punk bands that were fast and tight.

The East Village is where I cut my teeth as a kid. I ran around here on a skateboard.

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

The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.

The thing about punk is that there are purists. Once you start going outside of that, they don't think what you're doing is punk rock.

I had a big time punk-rock phase and psychobilly phase. I used to go mad for the Guana Batz.

I remember going to the East Village for the first time as a fifteen-year-old and going to Tompkins Square Park. That really seemed like a pretty edgy thing to do.

I was actually late to the punk movement because I was too young.

When I first moved to New York in 2006, I spent most of my time hanging out at and going to shows at a punk house in Crown Heights called The Fort where, amongst many roommates, my friend Johnny lived. Johnny loves The Germs, the legendary L.A. punk band fronted by the late, great Darby Crash.

I was a huge punker growing up.

I actually got into music because of art and because of skateboarding: All those graphics and punk bands and fanzines - they were glued together in my brain.

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

When we started to do punk, we put all of these things together to create the look of an urban guerrilla - a rebel.

I was a punk before it got its name. I had that hairstyle and purple lipstick.

I'm the first to admit that we were totally dependent on a particular place and time... for us, seeing Minor Threat at the CBGB hardcore matinee was just as necessary a force in our lives as the Treacherous Three at Club Negril or the Funky Four + One More at the Rock Lounge.

Growing up, my mates and I would have rather been Sid Vicious or members of the Royal Family.

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.