Billy Corgan Quotes

I believe that if the Tribune company ever tries to close down Wrigley Field that you will have a protest from every corner of the globe.

If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then why practice?

There's nothing more satisfying than going to a market and meeting the person who picked the strawberries, or it's their farm that the strawberries came from, and giving them a fair value in exchange for what they're giving you.

Say you write a song about a chandelier, and the chandelier gives off light. And the light is the color red and red reminds you of the color your not supposed to wear around a bull. So you name the song 'Cow.'

The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.

I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins.

I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan.

I think a spiritual journey is not so much a journey of discovery. It's a journey of recovery. It's a journey of uncovering your own inner nature. It's already there.

Great music completely obliterates any conceptions of genre.

I was part of a generation that changed the world - and it was taken over by poseurs.

Saturn Return is just the return of your planets to their original position.

Compliments and criticism are all ultimately based on some form of projection.

Where is this great love for rock and roll that existed for 50 or 60 years?

My pat line about the Cubs and payroll is that the amount of merchandise the Cubs would sell off a world series championship would more than cover for a big payroll.

Like any good tree that one would hope to grow, we must set our roots deep into the ground so that what is real will prosper in the Light of Love.

We've turned into a whining society.

I had concussions as a kid playing football and basketball, and know what it feels like and to have someone say 'Just rub some dirt on it, and get back in there.'

Once a pumpkin, Always a pumpkin.

To me, music was about being accepted and escaping from this crummy existence.

The great thing about rock n' roll is, if you want to fight - like, fight the system, fight the man, fight the government, fight the people in front of you - it's Don Quixote all over again. You're really chasing windmills.

Thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really only a way of ignoring the present.

Why is it that all non-conformists look the same?

I'm a Pisces, and Pisces have this weird inability to be completely spontaneous. We're too conscious of our actions. I've always been way too sensible for my own good.

Been there, done that, seen it, heard it, pissed on it.

Heavy metal is a universal energy -- it's the sound of a volcano. It's rock, it's earth shattering. Somewhere in our primal being we understand.

I've always been spiritual but I've never had a proper context, and it took me awhile to find the proper context. It's hard to realize you can have any kind of relationship with God you want...and so I now have a punk rock relationship with God.

I'm sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.

Your basic person wants to talk about material culture, internet culture. I think about God, cats, nature.

I usually wake up far after breakfast. That's as much as you're going to find out about my dietary requirements other than marijuana and vodka.

Most great records really start with the drums.

Don't judge yourself by someone else's standards. You will always lose

We need to get back to a level of social responsibility that we haven't seen for a long time.

People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.

I'm from a lower middle class background; all my family were immigrants.

Even if you don't believe in God, exploring fully the idea of a God or Gods should pose no threat to you.

Sometimes people just like being around each other, and good things come out of that.

The deeper I get into my life as a musician, I'm discovering that it becomes less and less about other people, and more about what I want to do. And that's a good place to be.

If I have resistance to something, it means there's something wrong. The resistance to me is a sign of fear.

Indie world won't have me, and mainstream world treats me like an alien, but here I am still floating between these two worlds.

Do I belong in the conversation about the best artists in the world? My answer is yes, I do.

The funny thing about me that most people never really understand is that, at heart, I'm really a jock.

There's something going on right now in America, where the American spirit or character is reasserting itself around liberty. I think it's an important time, and I'm trying to document that as an artist. If I just filter what I read through the media, if I just go through what I read through the media, I'm not really in touch with the world I grew up in. I know there's a gap there, I talk to my relatives, I talk to people I meet traveling around, and their mind is on something completely different.

The reason I don't play any of the old songs is because I really honor my old band, and I think that those songs are best served within the context of that band.

In my case I don't mind playing a character that irritates people or makes people question my sanity.

For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done all right.

I lay a lot of blame at the feet of Dusty Baker for not being more strict about fundamentals, which I think would give the team a stronger day-to-day identity.

I'm attacking the pomposity that says this is more valuable than that. I'm sick of that.

You will never see the four original Pumpkins on stage ever again, unless it's a Hall of Fame thing. But you would never see a tour. There's so much damage, there's no way.

I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.

The Pumpkins love rock-and-roll, we absolutely love it, but we also think it's a flatulent, ego-serving kiddie playground. You can have your cake and eat it too.