John Lydon Quotes

When you talk like an asshole and look like an asshole, you're an asshole

Freedom isn't to do what you want at somebody else's expense.

When you come from desperate poverty, and that's exactly what I come from, you know that nonsenses are not to be tolerated. I'm not sure who gains from chaos, but I know it's not the poor folks in the council flats. The politics of vindictiveness is never, ever anything like a solution.

I'm very open about my politics. I don't believe in any political party at all, none of them.

I'm no one's lap dog, you can't put me on a leash.

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

Punk became a circus didn't it? Everybody got it wrong. The message was supposed to be: Don't follow us, do what you want!

Just because people think politically different to you doesn't mean they're inhuman.

Move to Italy. I mean it: they know about living in debt; they don't care. I stayed out there for five months while I was making a film called 'Order Of Death,' and they've really got it sussed. Nice cars. Sharp suits. Great food. Stroll into work at 10. Lunch from 12 till three. Leave work at five. That's living!

Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative.

Obama's dense as a doorbell; not much going on up there - it's a wooden top.

You'd have to be daft as a brush to say you didn't like Pink Floyd.

I have one major problem with the Internet: It's full of liars.

I'm not this callous clown walking around laughing at life all the time. I've had some serious, serious problems in my life. But I've come out with a smile.

Michael Jackson plays the wounded puppy very well. 'I must be the loneliest man in the world'. Well, you're not a man. And the loneliness is self inflicted, so sod off you pathetic puerile pimp. I wonder what color his willy is.

I cannot comprehend fundamentalism. It's fundamentally wrong.

I'm not here for your amusement. You're here for mine.

I like crazy people, especially those who don't see the risk.

I'm just permanently agitated by everything and everyone.

Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.

I went to visit Alcatraz years ago when I was on tour with the Pistols, and I really liked the atmosphere of the place. I genuinely, really, thoroughly enjoyed the whole morning there. I just liked the quietness and stillness of what is basically a cruel prison complex. I still found some kind of joy in that. That's how I am.

Meat isn't murder, it's delicious.

Judge not others unless you're prepared to be judged!

If you are pissing people off, you know you are doing something right

You'll find that empty vessels make the most sound.

I love Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart because they're bringing irony back into American humor, which is a delicious treat. The entire Colbert persona of being extreme right-wing when he's not at all is highly amusing. He does it so well, but sometimes a little too well. My wife is convinced he's completely that way.

I think national pride leads to nothing but wars and hate.

I like lime-flavoured yoghurt. The end. There is no religion. It’s a man-made fabrication. Once you understand that, you’ll be a happier individual. Atheism is as pointless as satanism.

Let's escape the past. The past didn't work. All we have is the future, and I'm the one who wrote "no future for you!" Don't let the irony be lost.

Analog, electronic, whatever it happens to be, I simply love and adore literally every aspect of making music.

I hate the technological rip-offs that pass for music formats these days, and go back to vinyl to hear a good record because the sound is always so much fuller. I don't even like listening to music in the car.

For me, the anarchy movement is hilarious. It's all under .org, which is of course government sponsored websites, and then they're all wearing corporate clothing from the Dr.Martin's to the back sacks and the cell phones, they're all flying around on corporate jets and using corporate highways. Very anarchistic!

U2 - that's a band that never should have existed. There's no life experience in any of their songs.

Love is 2 minutes and 52 seconds of squelching noises.

Any kind of history you read is basically the winning side telling you the others were bad.

My way of thinking as I approach any human being on this planet is, 'What are you doing now?' That's what interests me. I don't come at anybody with a whole bunch of assumptions.

I showed what I can do with butter, right? Eighty-five percent increase in sales. I'm very proud of them Country Life ads. They were funny and clever and classy like the Toblerone ads I grew up with.

Being born into the Royal Family is like being born into a mental asylum. Marrying into it is not something to be taken lightly.

Here's how I understand music. If you can play the same bunch of noise twice, it's music. To go beyond that is supercilious and pontificating.

[Replying to the question of the presenter: "where did the name "Sex Pistols" come from, who thought this name up?"] Some animal. I can't remember. It doesn't matter. It's history.

'Lollipop Opera' is the backdrop to Finsbury Park. A place that is very thriving, interracial and lot of music stores, Greek, Turkish, all sorts of immigrant music. It's utter Englishness. It blends the Jamaicans, the Irish. It's like what Jim Reeves did with American country music.

Rock n' roll is over, don't you get it? It lasted 25 years and now gets wiped out. The Sex Pistols were the bullet in the brain. They were the last rock and roll band.

I don't tolerate liars. When somebody lies to me, that's really, like, just unbearable.

I always feel like a bit of an outsider myself, but as a working class lad, the system was always against me. The British system itself and then of course all the illnesses that were challenging to me.

I love discordancy. It makes people ill at ease and wakes up a part of their brain that's normally asleep.

I hate death; it takes people away from you. You're left feeling rudderless.

I don't believe in anarchy, because it will ultimately amount to the power of the bully, with weapons. Gandhi is my life's inspiration: passive resistance. I don't want to live in the Thunderdome with Mad Max.

Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated.

Over the years, during television interviews, whenever the host or the reviewer or whoever gets cynical and nasty with me, I will behave accordingly. I will defend myself.

You never know how things will work out. After all the bad reasons in the world, some good came out.