1.
A man once asked me, what's punk? I kicked over a trash can and said that's punk. He kicked over a trash can and then asked me again, Is that punk? I replied no. That's just trendy.
Billie Joe Armstrong
A person formerly asked me, what is punk? I upended a waste bin and said that's punk. He overturned a garbage container then posed the question once more, Is that punk? I answered no. That's merely fashionable.
2.
Punk will never be dead to me. It's my life. I can never just drop this lifestyle. It embodies me.
Billie Joe Armstrong
3.
To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'.
Joey Ramone
4.
Looking back on the production of 'Nevermind,' I'm embarrassed by it now.' It's closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.
Kurt Cobain
5.
Music never leaves you alone, and punk rock will always be there when nothing else will.
Pete Wentz
6.
I listened a little to punk when I was younger, but it was straight edge punk. It was nothing like what is going on now, like poppy punk.
Travis Barker
7.
I took Punk to be the detonation of some slow-fused projectile buried deep in society's flank a decade earlier, and I took it to be, somehow, a sign.
William Gibson
8.
Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.
Kurt Cobain
9.
All punk is is attitude. That's what makes it. The attitude.
Joey Ramone
10.
The single best thing that has happened in my lifetime in music, after punk rock, is being able to share music, globally for free.
Steve Albini
11.
Punk is not dead. Punk will only die when corporations can exploit and mass produce it.
Jello Biafra
12.
Music is music; you can't change rock and say well this is punk rock and this is acid rock or rockabilly.
Chuck Berry
13.
To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people.
Joey Ramone
14.
PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason and ask questions.
Greg Graffin
15.
Punk rock will never die, until something more dangerous replaces it.
Jello Biafra
16.
Punk rock has become another viable art form. It always was. But now it's like everyone's doing it.
Tre Cool
17.
Country music is completely punk-rock. It's the original punk-rock.
Neko Case
18.
There are several books out on punk history, but I haven't read any of them. I was there.
Greg Ginn
19.
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.
Billie Joe Armstrong
22.
I encourage you to find your punk-rock, your lucha-libre, your pro-wrestling
Amy Dumas
25.
I used to hang out with a bunch of old punk rockers when I was a little kid.
Norman Reedus
26.
Im 36, but I still feel like a punk kid with $200 in my savings account.
Steve Aoki
27.
I was about 16 when punk started to happen. It was so exciting. You had a social depression going on in the U.K. There was a sanitation strike. London was really grim, gray. You had Margaret Thatcher coming in. It was a really revolutionary time.
Boy George
28.
I want to have tampons as merch that say ‘Periods are punk.'
Charli XCX
29.
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.
Brian Johnson
30.
I don't think punk fashion is a specter or overemphasized - it made a big impression, as there had never been anything like it before.
Vivienne Westwood
31.
A guy walks up to me and asks, "What's Punk?". So I kick over a garbage can and say. "That's punk!". So he kicks over the garbage can and says, "That's Punk?", and I say, "No that's trendy!
Billie Joe Armstrong
32.
It’s always this thing where we’re constantly waiting for something that will come in electronic music that says, ‘Daft Punk sucks!’ That’s actually much more interesting and exciting than someone who is paying homage.
Thomas Bangalter
33.
The American underground punk scene, though, is a story worth remembering.
Ian MacKaye
34.
Vivienne Westwood really inspires me. I love her punk ethos.
Charli XCX
35.
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.
Billie Joe Armstrong
36.
I would say there's a lot of similarity between folk and punk. It's written for the common man.
Greg Graffin
37.
I identified very much with punk, not only in the fashion sector, but in every other sector. The very nature of doing something new and free meant something that was against authority.
Rei Kawakubo
38.
What the Sex Pistols made sounded like quality, because they had a big label and top engineers and producers. But punk rock shouldn't be quality; it should be f**king mania. It should be gnarled, a glorious lo-fi live sound.
David Vanian
39.
Will punk rock ever die? Pal, if you have to ask it's dead to you.
Henry Rollins
40.
Punk is the way of those who are unable to express themselves, but they aren't dangerous; at worst, they may kill their audience.
Mike Oldfield
42.
If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I'm getting rid of grunge.
Damon Albarn
43.
I never thought of Green Day as a punk band. Just bubblegum, really.
John Lydon
44.
I have found myself deeply, deeply intrigued by the ska-punk scene. It's such an expressive form of popular music, it's so real, it's got so much life: it's the most vital music in the world.
David Bowie
45.
The whole punk ethic was do-it-yourself, and I've always been very literal, especially as a kid. When they said that anybody can do this, I was like, 'OK, that's me.'
Michael Stipe
46.
I enjoy punk, the attitude as well as the music, but I don't feel like I have to be a carbon copy of it and invite all this controversy, just to be punk rock.
Hayley Williams
47.
My haters are laughable punks, my supporters the greatest people that ever lived.
Ted Nugent
48.
I'm a punk rocker. I don't do Christian.
Adam Ant
49.
I wanted to be in a punk band before I had even heard any punk music.
Kurt Cobain
50.
To me punk rock is thinking outside of the box, outside of the program, outside the establishment.
Madonna Ciccone