Malcolm McLaren Quotes

The popularity of punk rock was, in effect, due to the fact that it made ugliness beautiful.

Be childish. Be irresponsible. Be disrespectful. Be everything this society hates.

What matters is this: Being fearless of failure arms you to break the rules. In doing so, you may change the culture and just possibly, for a moment, change life itself.

To be a flamboyant failure, that's better than being any kind of benign success

Don't kill the golden goose.

Punk's influence on music, movies, art, design and fashion is no longer in doubt. It is used as the measurement for what is cool.

I've always embraced failure as a noble pursuit. It allows you to be anti whatever anyone wants you to be, and to break all the rules.

Stealing things is a glorious occupation, particularly in the art world.

Try managing a junkie - especially if you've never been one yourself.

Rock and roll doesn't necessarily mean a band. It doesn't mean a singer, and it doesn't mean a lyric, really. It's that question of trying to be immortal.

The Pistols were like my work of art. They were my canvas.

What are the politics of boredom?

Too fast to live, too young to die.

Nothing changes and very little happens in Paris. This is a great place to work without distraction - and then I run away to New York, where I have a life!

I've always thought that gaming and YouTube and the web is a very post-punk extravaganza.

The thing about Paris, it's a great city for wandering around and buying shoes and nursing a cafe au lait for hours on end and pretending you're Baudelaire. But it's not a city where you can work.

I saw a picture of Elvis in blue lame, and thought that if I could recreate that suit and walk down the King's Road in it, someone might pick me up and take me off on a crazy adventure.

It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that.

Art school had taught me it was far better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.

I always said punk was an attitude. It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that.

Fashion is never wrong.