Top 180 John Lydon Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “The only notes that matter come in a wad.”

— John Lydon

52. “Freedom isn’t to do what you want at somebody else’s expense.”

— John Lydon

53. “Being born into the Royal Family is like being born into a mental asylum. Marrying into it is not something to be taken lightly.”

— John Lydon

54. “I’ve been asked over the years to compile a list of desert-island discs. I couldn’t do that. If I was trapped on a desert island, I don’t think I’d want 10 songs to bring with me.”

— John Lydon

55. “Oscar Wilde turned the world upside down and was able to laugh at it, and hopefully by the time I’m 120 and worn out, that’s what I will achieve. I love being alive so much.”

— John Lydon

56. “I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die...”

— John Lydon

57. “I’ve never told anyone this. But I suffer from terrible stage fright. True. You can’t tell though, can you? Unbelievable, the panic. I nearly die of fear before I go on stage. Something wicked. I can’t eat a thing the day before a gig. It’d make me vomit.”

— John Lydon

58. “Americans being upright and forthright and honest and true to themselves is a very hard concept.”

— John Lydon

59. “Love is two minutes fifty-two seconds of squishing noises. It shows your mind isn’t clicking right.”

— John Lydon

60. “Britain’s an island; it’s always had a constant ebb and flow of immigration – it makes it a better place.”

— John Lydon

61. “I don’t need a Rolls Royce, I don’t need a house in the country, I don’t want to have to live in France. I don’t have any rock and roll heroes; they’re all useless. The Stones and The Who don’t mean anything anymore; they’re established. The Stones are more of a business than a band.”

— John Lydon

62. “People don’t like other poor people, and rather than blame the people that make you all poor, you blame each other.”

— John Lydon

63. “When I write, my brain moves faster than my hands so I’m always trying to picture things.”

— John Lydon

64. “I’m not great at dealing with death, I have to say. I find death very hard: my mum, my dad, Sid Vicious. I’m not a monster; I feel it and it scares me. One death at a time, please, is all my heart will bear.”

— John Lydon

65. “I always find the mirror in the dressing room is where the best artists are.”

— John Lydon

66. “Don’t accept the old order. Get rid of it.”

— John Lydon

67. “You can always wake up on the wrong side of the bed and, boo-hiss, everyone suffers. We can all be temperamental.”

— John Lydon

68. “You’re made to feel ugly, and I made ugly beautiful. Just by sheer persistence. Nobody has the right to say that I am ugly, and I will not be a professional victim, you know. Sorry!”

— John Lydon

69. “You never know how things will work out. After all the bad reasons in the world, some good came out.”

— John Lydon

70. “You should never, ever be understood completely. That’s like the kiss of death, isn’t it? It’s a full stop. I don’t ever think you should put full stops on thoughts. They change.”

— John Lydon

71. “When you come from desperate poverty, and that’s exactly what I come from, you know that nonsenses are not to be tolerated. I’m not sure who gains from chaos, but I know it’s not the poor folks in the council flats. The politics of vindictiveness is never, ever anything like a solution.”

— John Lydon

72. “I never take any commitment lightly, and I certainly don’t take my wife lightly. I never did and I never will. That’s permanent. That’s true love.”

— John Lydon

73. “Analog, electronic, whatever it happens to be, I simply love and adore literally every aspect of making music.”

— John Lydon

74. “People think I hate the Royal Family, but that’s not true.”

— John Lydon

75. “Do not stand in the middle, go to the right or to the left.”

— John Lydon

76. “There are no limits to where our brains can take us. We are, if there be a God, God’s gracious creation.”

— John Lydon

77. “I showed what I can do with butter, right? Eighty-five percent increase in sales. I’m very proud of them Country Life ads. They were funny and clever and classy like the Toblerone ads I grew up with.”

— John Lydon

78. “I love pop music. It’s not easy to write a good pop song.”

— John Lydon

79. “I’m not blowing my own trumpet here, but I made a rap song 20 years ago with Afrika Bambaataa.”

— John Lydon

80. “Having a birthday cake squashed into your face by young kids? Delicious. I always don a Santa suit at Christmas. Remaining childish is a tremendous state of innocence.”

— John Lydon

81. “It’s a repressive society where you can’t be horrible, I’m not horrible, they made me horrible, I’m just honest.”

— John Lydon

82. “Chaos was my philosophy. Oh, yeah. Have no rules. If people start to build fences around you, break out and do something else. You should never, ever be understood completely. That’s like the kiss of death, isn’t it? It’s a full stop. I don’t ever think you should put full stops on thoughts. They change.”

— John Lydon

83. “I was brought up and raised in Britain as a Labour man, and that quickly changed. And I find there are more working-class people in the Conservative Party than the Labour party.”

— John Lydon

84. “If you were to look back at me as a school kid you’d see a very quiet little church mouse kind of character.”

— John Lydon

85. “I love consumerism, TV culture, shopping malls. There’s nothing I’d ever buy, but I like being there. It’s wacky.”

— John Lydon

86. “I’ve had great pleasure meeting the likes of Newt Gingrich and having a chat with the fellow on a staircase. I found him completely dishonest and totally likeable, because he doesn’t care! He knows what a politician is, and he’s a perfect embodiment of one.”

— John Lydon

87. “If my leg falls off, I’ll get a prosthetic. There’d be no deep sadness about. I’d just get on with it! It’s called life, and I love life. You have to be positive, and you have to crack on no matter what.”

— John Lydon

88. “It’s volatile, the marriage. Which one isn’t? Nothing better than a good, full-on row. Get it all out. Say rude and nasty things. And then be sorry. Genuinely sorry, afterwards.”

— John Lydon

89. “You gotta bear in mind, the youth – and this is just in Britain alone – have nowhere to go in the evenings. They’ve closed all the social centers. There’s not even a patch of grass to kick a ball on.”

— John Lydon

90. “I keep falling off the edge of the stage because I can’t see it. I can’t see my wrinkles in the mirror either, though.”

— John Lydon

91. “Disco sucks? You never heard that from me.”

— John Lydon

92. “U2 – that’s a band that never should have existed. There’s no life experience in any of their songs.”

— John Lydon

93. “I don’t like the monikers, and I don’t like being pigeonholed. You know, I’m a human being.”

— John Lydon

94. “Any new ideas go into PiL. My inspiration is everything that the human being gets up to. I don’t listen to any music when I’m in PiL-zone, because influences can poison your well. Otherwise, I listen to anything.”

— John Lydon

95. “I don’t believe in pets. I like animals to be wild and free.”

— John Lydon

96. “There are some Rolling Stones songs that are just stunners.”

— John Lydon

97. “When you grew up like me and my four brothers, you end up feeling somewhat inadequate, like somehow you don’t count.”

— John Lydon

98. “I love books, and all the best ones are people analysing their own emotions. You can learn from that.”

— John Lydon

99. “I’ve never done anything deliberately; I just speak my mind, and that is what I consistently do and will always do in any way shape or form that I can.”

— John Lydon

100. “I’ve never said I’m a communist.”

— John Lydon