Joe Strummer Quotes

Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'

Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.

I don't have any other message than don't forget you are alive

When I started, they told me I only needed 3 chords and the truth... It turned out I could manage with 2 and some vague ideas.

The way you get a better world is, you don't put up with substandard anything.

In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human beings.

We're all going to have to learn to live together and develop a greater tolerance and get rid off whatever our fathers gave us in the way of hatred between nations.

Don't write slogans, write truths.

The future is unwritten.

When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there.

I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.

The toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.

People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world.

Strummer's Law: No input, no output.

All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it.

It is fun to be alive. It's a hell of a lot better than being dead.

A lot of the time I'm semi-insane, but there is a slight bit of intelligence there.

To me our music is like Jamaican stuff - if they can't hear it, they're not supposed to hear it. It's not for them if they can't understand it.

Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing.

I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't.

You have the right not to be killed, unless it was done by a policeman or an aristocrat.

There is nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

If you ain't thinkin about man and God and law, then you ain't thinkin about nothin'.

When you're out to get the honey you don't go killing all the bees

My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.

I don't want to look back. I want to keep going forward, I still have something to say to people.

There is a time to dance to techno and a time not to.

I learnt that fame is an illusion and everything about it is just a joke. I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.

Yeah, all those things, responsibility, pressure. It's a bit stressful. I try and come to terms with it by not thinking about it.

Anybody who makes speeches written by someone else is just a robot.

Nonsmokers should be banned from buying any product a smoker created.

We aren't particularly talented. We try harder!

I just want to go back to rockin', but I'm uncertain as to what to actually do. The truth is, I never stopped thinking about rock'n'roll for a second that I'm on holiday.

The hippy movement was a failure.

I think we're going to have to forget about the radio and just go back to word of mouth.

everybody has a story to tell

I like to just feel how I feel and not worry about it really.

All hippies around now just represent complete apathy.

I like to read because it's the opposite of being on the go. Reading is the perfect antidote.

A lot of people... use a calculator!

With The Simpsons you can go back to work with a keen heart.

For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.

The only place I considered home was the boarding school, in Yorkshire, my parents sent me to.

I want to grow up with my audience. I don't expect to be getting through to the younger pop crowd. I learned that from Paul Simon.

I began thinking there should be an American phrase book, 'cause I've got an Italian phrase book, and an Arabic one... now a British one. I think it'd be pretty good to have an American phrase book.

There isn't a town in the world I haven't run amok in.

You've gotta be slightly stupid.

And the pebbles fight each other as rocks/And my father bends among them/Two hands outstretching up to me/Not that I can hear.