Top 200 Billy Corgan Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “A missive to all you metal bands, the world is totally over the rock thing. Rock is deader than it’s ever been.”

— Billy Corgan

52. “I’m sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.”

— Billy Corgan

53. “In my case I don’t mind playing a character that irritates people or makes people question my sanity.”

— Billy Corgan

54. “I have a musical ancestry as much as I have a family ancestry. Honoring those ancestors gives you access to a greater source of appreciation and information than you would have if you were just going on your own ego system.”

— Billy Corgan

55. “You know Americans are obsessed with life and death and rebirth, that’s the American Cycle. You know, awakening, tragic, horrible death and then Phoenix rising from the ashes. That’s the American story, again and again.”

— Billy Corgan

56. “There’s a lot of days where you feel forgotten.”

— Billy Corgan

57. “I use music as some kind of weird salvation to get away from life.”

— Billy Corgan

58. “I always thought Kurt Cobain was the perfect embodiment of the great alternative guitar player.”

— Billy Corgan

59. “Live simply; make compassionate choices when it comes to food.”

— Billy Corgan

60. “I do not trust those who make the vaccines, or the apparatus behind it all to push it on us through fear.”

— Billy Corgan

61. “I grew up in a house of no love or emotion – it kind of sticks with you.”

— Billy Corgan

62. “I feel completely free to do whatever I want and how I want to do it. I feel unburdened by my past.”

— Billy Corgan

63. “Thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really only a way of ignoring the present.”

— Billy Corgan

64. “One thing I’ve learned to appreciate as I’ve gotten a little older is direct forms of communication.”

— Billy Corgan

65. “We had a wonderful time with this kind of grunge awareness, where suddenly rock was cool again. People wanted to head loud guitars. It was a great time, and I’m glad we were there. But the gimmick part has worn off.”

— Billy Corgan

66. “The title of a song is like the wrapping on a present.”

— Billy Corgan

67. “I was brought up Roman Catholic. I’m not even baptized.”

— Billy Corgan

68. “If you don’t have some sort of belief system by which to center your life, it’s hard sometimes to understand why you would put up with your family.”

— Billy Corgan

69. “We’ll crucify the insincere tonight.”

— Billy Corgan

70. “I’m from a lower middle class background; all my family were immigrants.”

— Billy Corgan

71. “The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.”

— Billy Corgan

72. “I mean my point as an artist is I’m on my own little weird journey across the sky here and whether or not anybody’s listening, or listening to the degree I would like them to, at the end of the day has to be an inconsequential thing because I can’t chase this culture.”

— Billy Corgan

73. “There’s a difference between being a poseur and being someone who’s so emotionally challenged they’re kind of just doing their best to show you what they’ve got.”

— Billy Corgan

74. “In 1992, with the weight of a perceived world on our shoulders, we disappeared into a parking garage to write the songs that would change the course of our lives forever. ‘Siamese Dream’ represents all of our dreams coming true, while the dreams of a happy band fell apart.”

— Billy Corgan

75. “As a citizen of the great city of Chicago, I find it impossible to root against the White Sox. The White Sox organization has been much more consistent, in my lifetime at least, at putting a winning ballclub on the field.”

— Billy Corgan

76. “I think God is the most unexplored territory in rock and roll music.”

— Billy Corgan

77. “Why is it that all non-conformists look the same?”

— Billy Corgan

78. “A good artist is willing to die many times over. What’s funny is, I’ve died so many times.”

— Billy Corgan

79. “Gish was the best representation of where we were at the time.”

— Billy Corgan

80. “Everything about life makes me lonely.”

— Billy Corgan

81. “If you’ve sold over a million records, you are not punk rock, you are milking the system for everything that it’s worth.”

— Billy Corgan

82. “My mother and I parting company at four years old is a recurring theme; although it’s not symbolically necessarily present, it’s present in all my relationships.”

— Billy Corgan

83. “My pat line about the Cubs and payroll is that the amount of merchandise the Cubs would sell off a world series championship would more than cover for a big payroll.”

— Billy Corgan

84. “The closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets.”

— Billy Corgan

85. “Somewhere between the intellectual idea of why we’re attracted to certain things and the pragmatic reality is some form of ever-evolving truth.”

— Billy Corgan

86. “The things I’m guided to do are really strange to me.”

— Billy Corgan

87. “I do not think wrestling is going to save the world.”

— Billy Corgan

88. “When I’ve tried to reinvent the wheel, I get bashed for not doing the familiar things.”

— Billy Corgan

89. “Smashing Pumpkins has never been a band about hit songs.”

— Billy Corgan

90. “Say you write a song about a chandelier, and the chandelier gives off light. And the light is the color red and red reminds you of the color your not supposed to wear around a bull. So you name the song ‘Cow.’”

— Billy Corgan

91. “For someone who’s had the level of success I’ve had, there’s been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.”

— Billy Corgan

92. “Soon you won’t even have the choice to live or die as you wish!”

— Billy Corgan

93. “The weird nihilism that permeates Mellon Collie is extremely relevant to what’s going on right now. So many kids are intelligent and articulate, but they don’t know what to do with themselves.”

— Billy Corgan

94. “I hate how in magazine pictures, they always stick me somewhere in the back. It means they don’t think I’m the cute one.”

— Billy Corgan

95. “There is something mighty suspicious about declaring an emergency for something that has yet to show itself to be a grand pandemic.”

— Billy Corgan

96. “I met Scott Stapp when the band was first coming up, great guy. I haven’t seen him for years, but a great guy.”

— Billy Corgan

97. “That’s at the root of the human interaction: fair trade.”

— Billy Corgan

98. “All humans are part male and part female. The other side must be explored to gain complete understanding ofourselves and the world we live in. Forme, the idea of having a feminine perspective is a willingness to be vulnerable.”

— Billy Corgan

99. “It seems to me that references to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin meant more to me a year ago and all those old things are totally losing importance.”

— Billy Corgan

100. “I’m viewed as this weird, crippled character. But you got to take your lumps.”

— Billy Corgan