Joe Strummer > Quotes

“And so now I'd like to say - people can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks - I am one of them. But we've all got to stop just following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything - this is something that I'm beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other. That's because they've been dehumanised. It's time to take the humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed, it ain't going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you're nothing. That's my spiel.”
― Joe Strummer

“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

“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

“The future is unwritten.”
― Joe Strummer

“We aren't particularly talented. We try harder!”
― Joe Strummer

“When you're out to get the honey you don't go killing all the bees”
― Joe Strummer

“People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world. ”
― Joe Strummer

“It is fun to be alive. It's a hell of a lot better than being dead.”
― Joe Strummer

“Yeah, all those things, responsibility, pressure. It's a bit stressful. I try and come to terms with it by not thinking about it.”
― Joe Strummer

“everybody has a story to tell”
― Joe Strummer

“You've gotta be slightly stupid.”
― Joe Strummer

“As the floods of God
Wash away sin city
They say it was written
In the page of the Lord
But I was looking
For that great jazz note
That destroyed
The walls of Jericho
The winds of fear
Whip away the sickness
The messages on the tablet
Was valium
As the planets form
That golden cross Lord
I'll see you on
The holy cross roads
After all this time
To believe in Jesus
After all those drugs
I thought I was Him
After all my lying
And a-crying
And my suffering
I ain't good enough
I ain't clean enough
To be Him
The tribal wars
Burning up the homeland
The fuel of evil
Is raining from the sky
The sea of lava
Flowing down the mountain
The time will sleep
Us sinners by
Holy rollers roll
Give generously now
Pass the hubcap please
Thank you Lord”
― Joe Strummer

“I want to grow up with my audience. I don't expect to be getting through to the younger pop crowd. I learned that from Paul Simon.”
― Joe Strummer

“Without people, you're nothing.”
― Joe Strummer

“A lot of people... use a calculator!”
― Joe Strummer

“And the pebbles fight each other as rocks/And my father bends among them/Two hands outstretching up to me/Not that I can hear.”
― Joe Strummer, Rock Art & the X-Ray Style

“The hippy movement was a failure.”
― Joe Strummer

“You ain’t alive and kicking unless you’re fighting.”
― Joe Strummer

“And so we say
We ain't digging no grave
We're digging a foundation
For a future to be made
Joe Strummer, North and South”
― Joe Strummer

“And so we say
We ain't digging no grave
We're digging a foundation
For a future to be made”
― Joe Strummer

“You see, I'm not like Paul [Simonon] or the others, I had a chance to be a 'good, normal person' with a nice car and a house in the suburbs – the golden apple or whatever you call it. But I saw through it. I saw it was an empty life.
I only saw my father once a year (after being sent to boarding school). He was a real disciplinarian who was always giving me speeches about how he had pulled himself up by the sweat of his brow: a real guts and determination man. What he was really saying to me was, 'If you play by the rules, you can end up like me'. And I saw right away I didn't want to end up like him. Once I got out on my own, I realized I was right. I saw how the rules worked and I didn't like them.
[-- LA Times interview]”
― Joe Strummer

“The truth is only known by gutter snipes...”
― Joe Strummer

“Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
Do you know that you can use it?”
― Joe Strummer

“If Adolf Hitler flew in today, they'd send a limousine anyway.”
― Joe Strummer, The Clash Anthology

“We’d play to old age pensioners if they’d have us but we don’t have to. The Stones are taking care of that now.”
― Joe Strummer