Tony Wilson Quotes

This is Manchester, we do things differently here.

Most of all, I love Manchester. The crumbling warehouses, the railway arches, the cheap abundant drugs. That's what did it in the end. Not the money, not the music, not even the guns. That is my heroic flaw: my excess of civic pride.

I’ll just say one word: Icarus. If you get it, great. If you don’t, that’s fine too. But you should probably read more.

When forced to pick between truth and legend, print the legend.

Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.

Nothing useless can be truly beautiful.

That came from my mother. She was the biggest influence on my life. I remember once refusing to get on a bus with her because she was wearing a mink, and I thought we should be taking a taxi. She just said, 'Who cares what people think?' and I remember sitting on that bus, being utterly embarrassed, but knowing somehow that she was totally correct.

Every band needs it's own special chemistry. And Bez was a very good chemist.

If you live in Birmingham, then being awake is not necessarily a desirable state.

I'm a minor player in my own life story.

There is no celebrity quite as powerful as the local, homegrown celebrity.

Energy, energy? Energy is, is, it's nothing more than a lot of new age hokum masquerading as religion.

I am not a piece of hash. I'm in charge of Factory Records. I think.

The special relationship between the region and a regional celebrity means that people feel that they have a special investment in you.

I've been a minor celebrity since I was 23 years old.