Penelope Spheeris Quotes

When punk began to be a genre, people were going to go out and try to mine it. Some of the better groups, like the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, were very artificial.

I love punk rock, The Clash, The Ramones, The Cramps. I love where it all came from, and music for my ears now, it has to have that same electricity, adrenaline and danger.

I created Punk for this day and age. Do you see Britney walking around wearing ties and singing punk? Hell no. That's what I do. I'm like a Sid Vicious for a new generation.

When punk came along, I found my generation's music. I grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, 'cause that was what got played in the house. But when I first saw the Stranglers, I thought, 'This is it.'

I didn't really see the British punk movement, if that's what it was, as wildly original, because I had been listening so intently to all the New York music since 1973, really.

I don't think any punk bands really ever got their due.

I was actually late to the punk movement because I was too young.

I was a huge punker growing up.

I discovered the Clash, the Pistols, obviously the Ramones, Blondie.

I never met Johnny Rotten, and I didn't want to meet Johnny Rotten.

I went to UC Berkeley for college, and it was during the period when the whole punk movement was happening.

I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all.

There are several books out on punk history, but I haven't read any of them. I was there.

The first time I heard 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais,' I loved the vulnerability in the music and the lyrics.

I first got into punk music at 17, The Adverts, just from being a bored teenager.

I think punk rock needs an 'Amadeus.'

I got into punk at 17 after discovering an all-girl band from Long Island on the Internet called The Devotchkas - four crazy-looking girls with fast, driving basslines and high-pitched gang vocals who shared the same dress sense as the punks I used to eye up curiously in Camden.

When I was running the Troubadour, there was this transition from the classic singer/songwriter Jackson Browne types to bands like Black Flag, the Dead Kennedys, and Fear. Those are just some that come to mind. Oh, and Adam Ant! The Fear fans wanted to 'crush' the Ants. These guys hated each other.

I was the only real punk rock kid in my school, with, like, the plaid pants and the Rancid t-shirt.

I love punks!

The Sex Pistols came through Atlanta, and I got to go see them. That was historic. It blew me away; it was so much fun. I bought 45s of bands you don't hear about anymore.

I was really into punk when I was about 14.

Hardcore bands were coming out with names like Urban Waste and The Mob, you know, a lot of kind of tough names. So Beastie Boys was the stupidest name we could come up with. And unfortunately, it stuck.

I'm still secretly a bit of a punk. Love The Clash and a bit of the Pistols. I guess as I've got older I've chilled out a bit. But, my teenage angst is still stirring somewhere!

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.