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'

  Joe Strummer

  Attitude, Rocks, Essence

  175 Copy quote
• 

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

  Joe Strummer

  Mean, Rocks, Facts

  Interview with Jason Gross, www.furious.com. September 1999.

  144 Copy quote

• Don't forget you're alive. 'Cause sometimes when you walk around the city and you're in a bad mood, you can think, hey, wait a minute, we're alive! We don't know what the next second will bring and what a fantastic thing this is. This can get easily forgotten in the routine of life, and that's something I'm trying to bring to my attention at all times. Don't forget you're alive. We're not dead, you know. This is the greatest thing.

  Joe Strummer

  Thinking, Cities, Waiting

  181 Copy quote
• 

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

  Joe Strummer

  World, Way

  "My Dinner with Strummer". Interview with Earl Chalmers for Rude International, March 1999.

  142 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joe Strummer

  Ideas, Chords, Needed

  145 Copy quote
• 

  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.

  Joe Strummer

  Past, Want, Next

  "Armed Combat". Sounds Magazine Interview, July 17, 1982.

  156 Copy quote

• I'd like to say that people... people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there'll be people in it. And it's the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they're not on the world... It's time to take that humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time... Think on that. Without people you're nothing.

  Joe Strummer

  Country, Mean, Thinking

  "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten". Documentary, January 20, 2007.

  143 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Alive, Messages, Forget You

  146 Copy quote

• Don't write slogans, write truths.

  Joe Strummer

  Writing, Slogans

  122 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joe Strummer

  Father, Hatred, Tolerance

  137 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Tough, Honest, Being Honest

  "1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion". Book by Caroline Coon, 1977.

  97 Copy quote

• The future is unwritten.

  Joe Strummer

  Reality, Unwritten

  "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten". Documentary, Biography, Music, 2007.

  117 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joe Strummer

  Blame Someone, Hey, Faults

  Interview with Judy McGuire, Punk Magazine, www.punkmagazine.com. 2001.

  106 Copy quote

• Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed

  Joe Strummer

  Power, Age, Authority

  86 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Care, I Don't Care, Don't Care

  101 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Insane, Bits

  74 Copy quote

• Strummer's Law: No input, no output.

  Joe Strummer

  Law, Input, Output

  85 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Mean, People, World

  "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten". Documentary, Biography, Music, 2007.

  91 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Hands, People, Rich

  "Song: 'White Riot' ('The Clash')". 1977.

  77 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Fun, Alive, Hell

  74 Copy quote

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

  Joe Strummer

  Honey, Bees, Killing

  39 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joe Strummer

  Thinking, Trying, Needs

  Interview with Corey Levitan, Rolling Stone Online, December 02, 1999.

  31 Copy quote

• If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat.

  Joe Strummer

  Nice, Cat, Kitchen

  94 Copy quote

• There is nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent.

  Joe Strummer

  Perseverance, Determination, Persistence

  45 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joe Strummer

  Acting, Care, Illusion

  18 Copy quote

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