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Quotes from The Smiths
the Monochromatic Information Service presents
"Spreading the Good News"
Quotes From: The Smiths
Morrissey speaks .....
== Adolescence ==
"It forms your opinions for the rest of your life. The very obvious things about adolescence really your future. If you have a wonderful adolescence you go on to be a very assured person. But fyudnt ou really don't have a chance."
"I had quite a happy childhood until I was six or seven, after that it became horrendous. At the aget I became very isolated -- we had a lot of family problems at that time, and that tends to ocetaeyu life. I had a foul adolescence and a foul teenage existence. Except you really couldnt al i a eisene. I just sort of scraped through, escaping into films and books until _The Smihs_hapene an alowe meto live again!"
"I do distinctly remember one period where I hardly ever left the room for a three month period. I urite furiously and I was just really nailed to the typewriter and I was swimming in paper andalkn fitrospective things like that. I wasn't exactly your average teenager. The alternativesweent er gamros if I left the room -- I'd probably end up in some obscure pub or wandering abut he ark whch as lwas quite dangerous. I really had no option. I was unemployed for a very lng tme ad I ad n mony. Iwas iving a life to a large degree that I didn't choose -- being finaciall absudly ebarrased."
"I never had one. I went straight from six to forty-six. Quite depressing really. I missed out on althings like discos at Christmas. I suppose I've now regressed, but I wouldn't call it a secon hlho eause it's my first."
"I went through these bleak periods when I was nineteen and twenty when people were saying 'You've bng for five years. You really _must_ come out and have a good time. And if you don't go out yuwntb apy and meet friends.' I went through those patches where I was persistently going out o lus nd bcaseI felt so negative, I suppose I emitted this negative ray -- and people quite wlliglyshunedme.I fundI'd go out in a group and everyone would be attached by the end of the nght,but wasalwas thre, aitig for the 10:30 bus home ..... That happened for about two years.I _alays_ eemedto bethe oly on. Andalthough it can sound desperately pitiful ..... um, well, t was!I thin I wasbasicaly quie borig and erious."
== Age ==
"People are so obsessed with age which is a terrible trap to hurl yourself into. People do let theirtate their activities which is really disappointing . I think it's because of society -- and aeta od -- which implies that to
be old is to be useless and horrible and people are petrified of that. Of course, it's nonsense becae's loads of fascinating older people around."
== Ambition ==
"There's a lot I want to achieve, most of which is illegal."
"There's a lot I want to do. It doesn't all end with my thrusting a gladioli under Richard Skinner's
"But to talk about these things seems incredibly pompous and ostentatious. It almost sounds entirelyst."
"I _do_ want to write -- I still do write. And I would like to be successful in that area."
"I can't _use_. I _can't_ be that type of person. I can only do things if I really want to do them. ver the type of person that could exploit a situation. Quite the reverse. No."
"I just want to plunder through each day as it arrives and not really make any plans -- that's borinjust have to live each day as it arrives."
== America ==
"No group ever said this before ..... no group ever ignored America and no group has ever said "Wellwe're not in any mad panic to go there' and although I'm not saying that we will never go to mrc,Ife that for the immediate future we just won't go because generally in most matters we peae ureles Wic really irks the American record company and even though our album has sold incedily ellove thre e jst really don't want to go at present -- so we won't."
"We never really had the typical rock'n'roll obsession with 'breaking America', going on the treadmig incredibly successful, because it is a very strange market I find and it's really quite susiiu htoly the most inane groups are ever really successful there."
"There are lots of very intelligent Americans but the record market -- the way people are sold -- isver intelligent."
"The complete American record industry is made up of cowards, people will not take risks and I don'tat very much because it's very dull."
"The American record company have refused the bulk of our material. They think it's too intellectualrican audiences -- which I think is possibly true."
== Billy Fury ==
"Billy Fury is virtually the same as James Dean. He was entirely doomed too and I find that quite afte."
"He was persistently unhappy and yet had a string of hit records."
== Clothes ==
"The way I wear my shirts with the collars in and lots of beads is very natural to me. I abhor collalways turn them in. For some reason people around me are doing it too. I used to have a nice itetukfll of beads, but they have all gone, given away to people scattered around the country"
"I buy my underwear from Marks & Spencers."
== Contentment ==
"It's almost impossible to be content. It's absolutely humanly impossible. You spend your entire lifhis driving force for contentment, and you never actually arrive. You're putting everything offradyi your life that never happens."
== Dusty Springfield ==
"I think Dusty Springfield too soon seemed to lapse into the paternal image. Obviously, she was oldehe people who began with her and she was always very conscious of the fact of being older becuepol ie Sandie Shaw were seventeen. And of course Lulu and Helen Shapiro were much younger. ndalo usy prngield just made too many bad records, awful things like 'Son of a Preacher Man' hic copleelywen agins her original introductory records which are timeless."
== Fame ==
"It's not something that's ever distasteful -- if people like you it's wonderful."
"I feel that if you have something the world could benefit from then you should put it in the front ith a red light above it."
"It strikes me that many people who are stars are shallow individuals. It's rare that you get anybodere_ who has incredible depth or value. It seems that there is a shallow veneer to so many pepe"
"People send me heaps of poetry for some reason, and it's never even vaguely readable. I constantly le writing to me with their problems, all about their parents, their spots or their school unfr.
"For me it's actually quite stunning to meet people who want to talk to me."
"I'd rather be remembered as a big-mouthed failure than as an effete little wimp."
== Fans ==
"I get terribly embarrassed when I meet _Smiths_ apostles -- I hate the word fan. They seem to expech of me. Many of them see me as some kind of religious character who can solve all their probeswt ae of a syllable."
"I meet these people -- I won't say fans because it's really derogatory and I consider them all to bs -- I meet these people and underneath those frilly little skirts or whatever, they _are_ inelculcetures and I know it's impossible to grasp at this stage but it's absolutely true -- thy isentoth wrd and they do know why _The Smiths_ exist. It's not just a matter of, you know, youre uit hadsoe' nd o hell with the records."
== Being Fashionable ==
"We'll never be a flavor of the month. I think we're just a little bit to clever for that."
"I feel that when you're weak and the times change you kind of go down also, but I really don't beli we are. I think that we're largely very incorruptible and I feel that we're very strong. Andbcuew el that there is still a great deal to be done and we're not sitting back at any point ndwereno syig Well, yes, this is fine! This is all we have to do, we're going to lie down', bcaue w do't avetha atitude and because we feel it's really time to work even harder as each dy pases.
"The records have to be memorable -- it's not just an instant fad thing. If I thought we were going vogue February or March or whatever then the whole thing would be repellent to me. It _has_ ob eoal."
== Films ==
"Whenever I went to the cinema I always raced for the front seat, I'm afraid. I was _that_ boring."
"At the moment I'm completely handcuffed to 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' which I will never e of, and I find it disturbing that I can watch particular scenes for the hundred and twelfth ieadImsill caught unawares by a line which I have said repeatedly throughout the day. I can'tdecrbeth pety hat film has for me, especially that of Albert Finney in the Arthur Seaton role"
"Chariots of Fire ..... which was profound dross."
"A Taste of Honey had a massive influence on me. I mean, it was virtually the only important British the 1960s ..... as far as I'm concerned."
"Paramount! Home of all my heroes."
== Flowers ==
"Something the Oscar Wilde felt and I always thought was quite passionate and quite amusing -- the ionstantly carrying flowers or of being simply immersed in leaves. I quite like that -- it wasqiepei.
"Initially I used to carry flowers for reasons that I shall never go into and I got bored of that bul wanted to produce flowers in some way -- but not carrying them -- so suddenly overnight thi dacm ome and suddenly it turned into a bush in my back pocket."
"There's a tremendous amount of repression -- that's the saddest factor. It was why I introduced flostage -- to reduce people's hostility."
"_They_ understand it when I shower people in flowers. They appreciate the honesty of that act. It whing I felt compelled to do because the whole popular music scene had become so grey and blac,s ul hought something had to be injected and flowers were just a very sensible injection."
== Friends ==
"There's virtually no one. But it depends on how you measure your friends' loyalty. I find that if Iere and feeling particularly depressed, I can have a diary crammed with telephone numbers -- u hnteqestion comes of exactly who to phone, I find there's nobody I know who would come overstaihtawy ndse me. Sometimes I sit down and wish that things were quite different. But I foun tht Im i suh apostio now that people tend to keep their distance anyway. Certain things I sa -- ertan lyicalthins --makepeople realize that I'm not an uncomplicated person. That disturb a lo of pople nd sotheres alwys soe chasm -- and it's one that most people insist upon. On te othe hand,most o the pople Icome ito conact with are quite disposable anyway."
"There are some people who, on a very frivolous level, would like to know me and be involved. But it practical value when you realize they're only trying to excite themselves, trying to be a pato htyure doing."
"You can always rely on your old friends to trip you up in your moment of glory."
== The Future ==
"In many respects the future is black ..... Isn't it quite curious that all modern things in life arribly attractive? Change is never for the better ..... in the general scheme of things the onywyi on"
== Girlfriends ==
"I had this relationship with a girl and she repeated everything that had happened between us, in vetic detail, to almost everybody I knew. That crushed me for something like two years, it was oafl o hat she said anything that was so embarrassing ..... it was just like having one's diry inn n isla, s it were."
"I AM unrealistic when it comes to people and I DO expect a great deal. I couldn't possibly tolerateious shortcomings."
"After the terrible relationships I thought: 'Okay, I've had enough of this' -- and I decided I'd noconsider it a part of what I did. But now I've been alone for so long. As the years began to asIraie: 'Well, I'm celibate.'"
== 'Handsome Devil' ==
"It's an adult understanding of quite intimate matters."
"We must stress that 'Handsome Devil' is aimed entirely towards adults and has nothing to do with chand certainly nothing to do with child molesting." (Commenting on an ill-considered 'Silly Sesn tr na popular paper which tried to interpret the song as a hymn to paedophilia!)
== Happiness ==
'We shouldn't think of happiness as one thing. Happiness is eating an ice cream. Happiness can't be Manning ..... it can be ..... an old woman falling off a donkey! I don't know, for heaven's sk,Idntkow."
"People believe that the minute you get into the Top 20 you couldn't possibly be unhappy. Everythinge -- you have it. You go on 'Top of the Pops' which is only a few hours out of a week and it os' ufl you. You're still the same person -- it doesn't erase the past decade."
== 'Heroes' ==
"Michael Parks, Christopher Jones, Warren Beatty, Martin Sheen, Dean Stockwell, Tony Perkins, Jean Pondo, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Fabian, Zbigniew Cybulski, Arthur Gelien, Dick Davalos, Heny cine,To Donahue, Merle Johnson, Diana Dors, Mamie Van Doren, Brandon De Wilde, William Reynols,Gealin Pge Rchard Beymer, Billy Fury, Gene Pitney, Vic Morrow, Terence Stamp, Laurence Harvy, achl Rbers, lanBats, Lew Farper (Private Investigator), Jon Voight, Paul Morrissey, Shelag Delney,NealCassdy, mmet Groan, Sylvia Plath, James Macarthur, Don Murray, Terry Moore, Belina Lee Elizbeth aylor Clif Robetson,Ron Mael, Judy Holliday, Sean Connery, George Peppard, Jobiath, oger Sith, Erem Zibalist Edd Brnes, ob Wagner, Dave Nelson, George Nader, Martha Hyer, ia Scal, Charls Starkeather,Adam Wet, DeanJones, inda Cristal, Dolores Michaels, Eddie Slovic Alistai and TheOrphans,Tennesse William, Bryan regory, irrer, Henrietta and the Hairdooz, Th Kinks, Mrna Mardh Eden Kan, Pat Booe, Ruth Grdon, Rit Pavone, lifton Webb, Patti Lee Smith, he Lazy Suans, SableStarr, Pau America, iss PamelaDare, Sebatian Memmoh, Sheriden Whiteside, ell Dunn, Rchard Price"
== Himself ==
"In reality I'm all those very boring things: shy and retiring. In daily life I'm almost too retirinmfort really."
"I am a positive voice. The words I write are vital. I wish there were other songwriters I could claip with. But there is no one. I consider myself to be a genius."
"I just live a terribly solitary life without any human beings involved whatsoever and that to me isa perfect situation."
"I feel I'm a completely open book in every way."
"When the work is finished I just bolt the door and draw the blinds and dive under the bed. It's esso me. One must, I find, in order to work seriously, be detached. It's quite crucial to be a se wyfo he throng of daily bores and the throng of modern daily life."
"I feel entirely alone. There are people that I like and there are people that I admire, but I thinktimately we are alone."
"I'm hideously delicate."
"I remember for a long time feeling totally charmless and unhandsome and I know there are so many ot still feel the same way."
"For me things haven't changed. I haven't fallen into this wonderful whirlwind of activity where I'me and soul of the party. I couldn't do that because I don't have the training."
"The way I've lived is to ingrained for me to ever escape."
"I'm certainly not satisfied. I don't sit back and say 'Phew, now I've done it. I'll lie down and wacloud formation!' Lots of things still anger me. I read the press and it angers me, I feel thtIv o obe stronger and go at things harder. There are still things to be done."
"I've been in _almost_ every conceivable human situation ..... I've been in almost _no_ conceivable tuation, come to think of it."
"Since I _absolutely believe_ in what I say, I want to say it as loud as possible."
"I'm influenced by people who no one else in music has ever been influenced by before."
"Mutilated, maimed, forgotten, etc."
"In ordinary situation I _cannot_ survive. I _can't_ have a daily job. I _can't_ be out of bed by 8 I _can't_ converse politely with the man next door. But situations that are normally considee ut ural I find intensely natural -- appearing on TV, touring, they're nice things to do -- laorus"
"I don't believe there is anything in my past that could possibly interest anybody. I wish there wasng mysterious in my past but I'm afraid it was just dramatically dull."
== His Image ==
"It's not in the least bit contrived but when things fall into the public eye it seems to me that re of what you do or what you say it is construed as an image and you can wear no clothes at al n htwl be seen as an image. So it's really quite inescapable -- the whole thing. One comes ude te cochngserchlights and everything you do is an image."
"I think that most people see me as being quite delicate -- which in the world of popular music and roll, if you like, is anathema. It is the worst thing to be -- to be delicate and not be thi ra i aho whatever. Therefore since flowers and any kind of nature is just connected with totl imer t smederee I fall into the bracket. But I think I have other things that help me scramle ut f te pt."
== James Dean ==
"I saw 'Rebel Without a Cause' quite by accident when I was about six. I was entirely enveloped. I dresearch about him and it was like unearthing Tutankhamun's tomb."
"I never thought much about his acting abilities but the aura around him always fascinated me. When n James Dean to people they seem disappointed because it seems such a standard thing for a yon esnt e interested in -- but I can't help it."
"James Dean would not have been recognized in his final role -- that of a mangled corpse slumped oveeel of his wrecked Porche Spyder. Hollywood's new apostle of beauty -- reduced to an obscene es gd2.He had spent only sixteen months in Hollywood where he had made three films, one of whchha benreeaedat the time of his death. Three years after his death Warner Brothers were recevin hudres o leter pe week addressed to James Dean. His films had such an intense effect uponthe eenae Amricathatfan ail ddressed to the corpse outnumbered that of any living star. Twent-fiveyearsafterhis dath Dan isconsiered the symbolic figure of the 1950s. He who was perhaps o unlie the eriod ad com to reresentit."
== 'James Dean is not Dead' (His book on James Dean) ==
"We must loosely call it a book, it's nothing more than a rather thick pamphlet. It was done at a tiI was incredibly desperate. I was just lucky enough to be able to write about something I lovdqiedal -- a person, at any rate -- but it was really thrown together ..... it was a long tim ao ... os ohe things from the past don't seem to embarrass me, I don't know why, but that dos."
== Johnny Marr ==
"He had really quite simplistic ideals which at the time was very rare, and that was a perfect foundr what we wanted to do. He also worked very quickly, without anxiety, which I like. So many pol emt njoy talking about things and so few people seem to enjoy doing them."
== Life ==
"The only things one should have in one's life are the absolute necessities. No frills."
"Ninety percent of immediate daily anxieties are futile worries."
"People should disregard any notions of in-ness or hip-ness or cool-ness and simply relax and be the whatever that may be."
"I find that it often takes people who are totally detached from much that is considered common-placlly make strong comments about these things and to really say things that will make people stpadtik"
"Probably _everybody's_ extraordinary and the _minority_ of people in this world are very ordinary."nk people really need straightforward things for a change instead of living in this rather fansi n uuristic world which really isn't quite true because people's daily lives really haven'tcanedtht uc - they still have the same problems, they still have to face the same things. We'e ot n tis upe spce ge yet."
"There's a lot of sadness in life. Life is sad. Most people are miserable and most people at the endday say: 'Where am I going? Why am I doing this? Everyone hates me."
"We're all vulnerable. You're vulnerable -- I could just pounce on you and saw your head off. It's ae we started admitting it, and stopped all this bravado."
== London ==
"It's such an impersonal place which is very difficult to say when a lot of our popularity is based so many people have welcomed us. There' something frighteningly artificial about everything ee h hl place is geared up for tourism now. London's a kind of massive souvenir shop, a facad o hw ononusd o be. It just isn't English anymore, it seems very Americanized -- which is somthig t dwll ponwit horor."
== Love ==
"_The Smiths_ are the only real love I've ever had."
"I'm very interested in the ways true love is put across by most people in popular music and literatit's mostly quite derelict."
"We talk about love, we talk about marriage. It's not necessarily the same thing. We talk about lovetalk about friendship and sometimes friendship is much stronger."
"I don't think love is entirely superficial. I think lots of the images of love in modern life are ay superficial. I'm sure many people will agree with that anyway."
== Manchester ==
"I would like to have some kind of involvement with local politics here in Manchester. I feel so strout the way the city is being completely defaced and made uninhabitable. It's so ugly now, vatyul.Adit reflects itself in the attitudes of the people."
"A lot of the groups from Manchester are more intelligent that groups from other places."
"There is a 'Scene' but I think that it's very important to look beyond the 'Scene' and to go outside otherwise you get locked into a little clique. You have to have expansive vision."
"I certainly don't miss Whalley Range, that would be impossible. I drove through it the other day an quite depressing, the whole aura of the place was
very repressive, as it always has been, and I felt great sorrow for the people who were still nailedplace."
"When you say 'A Manchester band' it implies really that the band is only known in Manchester but we much scope as possible."
"In Manchester they just crush the past without a second thought, that reflects on the people."
== Marriage ==
"I've never known a marriage that was happy. Perhaps it's really just my experience but in all the m that I've ever known they've crumbled or corroded at the edges as it were. I see many, many igepol nd they're absolutely perfectly happy and this is a fact of life that many people don' raly ee t tkeinto consideration when we discuss marriage, so I can't really see any need forit.
"It's really quite simple, although I expect not on first glance ..... what 'William, It Was Really is about is ..... it occurred to me that within popular music if ever there were any recordsta icse marriage they were always from the female's standpoint -- female singers singing to wme: heevr hee ere any songs saying 'Do not marry, stay single, self-preservation, etc'. I thoghtit as bou tie terewas a male voice speaking directly to another male saying that marriage as awast of ime ....that in act, it was 'absolutely nothing'."
"As I grew up I recall nothing but constant divorces happening all around me. I came from a very lary and everyone who got married got divorced very quickly. My own parents got divorced. I realzda eyearly age that happiness within such a close bond is never possible."
== Meat ==
"Meat is murder as far as I can see it. I can't think beyond that really."
"I think generally that people think that meat doesn't have anything to do with animals. It's like por something -- it hasn't got a cow's face and it doesn't moo, so people don't think it's anias"
"It was simply the realization of the horrific treatment of animals -- I had never been aware of it I suppose. I knew vaguely about animals but I didn't know how."
"We get violently upset when animals eat human beings, so why shouldn't we feel horror when human be animals?"
"Many people write to me and simply say they've given up meat because they know I hate the idea of eat which to me is really quite wonderful."
"It can almost be a very boring issue but it's eating things that were alive ..... live animals."
== Food ==
"I have a daily intake of yoghurt and bread."
== His Mother ==
"To this day she's completely behind everything I say."
"She's very, very much involved in what I do. And her's is the only opinion that I really take remotously. So it really is quite treasurable."
"She let me do what I wanted to do. She gave me absolutely free rein to be what I really wanted to bhat was very helpful."
== Music ==
"I am incredibly fond of popular music."
"The list is really quite endless -- ultimately almost everything is an influence but it's really juing on what not to do in most cases."
"My first record was Marrianne Faithful's 'Come and Stay with Me' which I bought when I was very youmember it had a profound effect on me."
"I think it was just a vast array of 1960's British pop. I always bought records. Strangely enough, nd I nearly always bought the same records, it transpired ..... but it was mainly general popmscadtee was no specific influence in anything that we did or any specific group or artist."
"Within current music I an only think of people who have chased their own tails and then crumbled."
"I like Sandie Shaw and the Marvellettes."
"I won't deny that I like some of The Beatles songs .... it's dramatically unfashionable to say thato. A lot of them I can't stand ..... so where does that leave us?"
"Right now there's a group called James which I'm incredibly fond of."
"I am very interested in Sandie Shaw and singers who are similar to her like Timi Yuro and Rita Pavo both suffered a hasty eclipse. It was because of them I wrote my book 'The History of the FeaeViei opular Music'. Two publishers are interested in it."
"I think popular music is actually the last refuge of young people in the world -- it's the only remrt form, there's nothing else that touches young people."
"People like Diana Ross and Stevie Wonder bore me to death."
"Nice bored me to death."
== The Music Business ==
"Virtually everything about the pop industry I detest. I don't feel a part of it to any degree."
"I often feel that the popular music scene is made up of lonely people. You look at it and say 'Welle all there together, they're all famous and they go out every night and they hate money becas hyr ik of looking at it'. And it's not true. The few people I've met are on their own. Ther'snosuh hig s omradeship."
"If you're dramatically shy in this business you're an overbearing bore. It's all quite confusing."
"I think people can spot fakes quite easily and the big bores in the music industry people laugh at chuckle along but at the end of the day we really know everybody's value."
"We're angry about the music industry, we're very angry about pop music and I think it's about time ebody said something and somebody did something that is of value."
"All the pantomime nonsense and drivel that's occurred within recent years -- lots of people adoptinses that are so far-reaching that they don't have anything actually to do with everyday life n h od re so diverse that people really can't grasp them."
"People who are idiots and idiotic and bland and pointless and stupid and poppy -- they can do what e and nobody pins them up against a wall and say 'Why are you doing that?' But if you try andd oehn ith a grain of intellect you have to answer for it every single day of your life. Whic t m i te os iksome part of the music industry."
"I think it's really almost governmental that the whole idea of popular music has to be trivialized.ot be set up as something that is incredibly important. In the whole scheme of music classica ui s_ey_ important and other kinds of music are terribly important but popular music never eeris Ithnkits lmost political that it's hammered down because simply -- it IS very important.It eary away ha ben brdering on the revolutionary. In the late 60s it got to a stage where itwas ffecing eopl incediby --in a very positive way. I think it always has to be devalued to sve th worl."
"It got to the stage where I was so angry with popular music, I felt I really had to interfere in soBreak up all the squalor, which we're still trying to do. A big challenge to undertake? Well,ys u o now it's quite simple when you really think of it. And when you get within close proxiit yu eaiz i CN be done. So many of the people involved in popular music are really such ligh iniviual --the ony sem threatening from a distance."
== The New York Dolls ==
"Five years ago I would have lain on the tracks for them. Now I could never _possibly_ listen to oner records."
"It was just a teenage fascination and I was laughably young at the time. I always liked the Dolls bhey seemed like the kind of group the industry
couldn't wait to get rid of. And that pleased me tremendously. I mean, there wasn't anybody around t any dangerous qualities so I welcomed them completely. Sadly, their solo permutations crushe htvriae I had of them as individuals. Now I think they're absolute stenchers!"
== Nostalgia ==
"To me nostalgia is the turn of the century. I'm not nostalgic for anything."
== Oscar Wilde ==
"Most of my inspiration comes from outside music -- especially literature and particularly Oscar Wily mother, who is an assistant librarian, introduced me to his writing when I was eight. She insistedhim and I immediately became obsessed. Every single line affected me in some way."
"It's a total disadvantage to care about Oscar Wilde, certainly when you come from a working-class bd."
"I find it impossible to read a single line without swimming in tears."
"He was a hideously fat person, so I'm sure he did indulge in meat -- quite often in fact -- but he ven."
"He was so completely beyond wit, it's almost ordinary to just think of him as witty. He is to me thte ideal figure, and obviously it's the height of ostentatiousness -- the desire to be compard n,o orse, it won't happen. But if I could make a personal choice -- which, of course, I cant - t oud e atold Oscar."
== Politics in Music ==
"More often than not it doesn't work. I think you have to do it very slyly and in a very almost inte way."
"All the people that have been known in the past as singers of political songs haven't lasted very lwhen certain political issues have died down so have the groups that sing about them. So I do' at_h miths_ in any way to be attached to any kind of trend. But, yes, we do have our politialviwsan Ithnkit really is quite obvious the way we fell about most things if you just study he yris ad te msicanyay."
"You _have_ to be interested in politics these days. If you are not, you are a completely lost indiv
== The Press ==
"To be frank, much of the publicity that we've had has embarrassed me."
"Most of it is just peripheral drivel and a misquote simply floors me. I really can't survive being d and that happens so much, I sit down almost daily and wonder why it happens."
"The positive stuff one _always_ wants to believe and the insults one always wants not to be believene reads of this monster of arrogance, one doesn't want to feel that one is that person."
"A lot of people don't give you the right to reply about many things and they just come to assumptiothis is just modern journalism."
"Because I'm interviewed so much and in so many ways I'm almost always asked the same questions. Whethings emerge in print it constantly seems as though I'm saying the same things all the time n a mgne that boring people to death very quickly. So it's really just a harder job for me ad hvetothnkabut things a little more. But, again, that's just one of those wonderful dilemma."
"When I wrote the words for 'The Jokes Isn't Funny Anymore' I was just so completely tired of all thld journalistic questions and people trying this contest of wit, trying to drag me down and poeta a completely fake."
"A lot of people wrote about the first LP and they said things that were very poetic and very intered absolutely inaccurate."
"When some harsh criticism comes in I naturally feel these people are drunk. It's quite natural to f way."
"It was always very important to me to say things that hadn't really been said before. It wouldn't b just to have the usual interview spiel and the usual replies and though I certainly didn't sac o eyaffected replies, if I thought that we didn't have anything to offer I wouldn't botherwih hewhlethng
"We have no control over what actually appears in print and I try to have as much control over the aterview as possible and it always goes very, very well but sometimes it just doesn't come tha a.
"History has attached us to other Manchester groups and it's so boring. This attitude that tars all ith the same brush is idle. But it's convenient for journalists, they have to write somethingqikyadi's guesswork mainly. When these people just go through the motions, not really caring ha teywrteabut it's disheartening."
== Reading ==
"I swam in books as a child, and at some point it becomes quite ruinous, it gets to the point where t answer the door without being heavily analytical about it."
"I'm moved by certain works rather than by people. I can mention books by certain people that have sight. For instance, Thomas Hardy's 'Far From the Maddening Crowd' set me alight but 'The Mayo fCsebige' didn't. And I feel that about so many people that I've liked apart perhaps from Shlah elne."
"I could be here for weeks talking about this ..... There's one person called Shelagh Delaney whom never heard of. She had a massive influence on me and I've only actually got three books by he .. he ieces of work. 'A Taste of Honey' I can recite now if you like -- word for word -- it' tkea on tme Ys, it had a massive influence on me."
"So many people -- obscure people like Susan Brown-Miller, Molly Haskell -- just American writers --th Smart ..... does this mean anything to you?"
== Rita Tushingham ==
"I passed her the other day. I was in a car and she was trolling down Picadilly and I stopped the casaid 'I have to go and speak to Rita Tushingham' and I couldn't! I was just too nervous - whihi iiuos."
== Rock'N'Roll ==
"As a general spirit I'd accept the term 'rock and roll' -- but if we're talking about 'Good Golly My' then it couldn't possibly be further from us."
"To me 'rock and roll' aren't really nasty words. I can think of worse swear words ..... synthesizerot embarrassed by the phrase."
"When you talk about all the obvious heroes like Little Richard or somebody, that's obviously what w. But a certain spirit that those people had is exactly what we have."
"So much rock and roll is masturbatory in a way, very phallic at times."
"I'm not influenced by the rock and roll elements, I'm not inspired by Mick Jagger."
== Romance ==
"I find really strange things romantic and I find where relationships are concerned I find problems mantic and people grappling with their throttled passions and things aren't quite working out"
== Rough Trade ==
"We went to see various people from the majors but we felt out of place at every meeting. Our aims weally in line with theirs, whereas with Rough Trade we though there was an immediate empathy ewe s xeriencing the majors at first hand was actually a pretty horrendous experience -- theycold'trell se eyond what was already popular, what had already sold."
== Sandie Shaw ==
"It's really quite strange because as I grew up all the strong female voices of the Sixties seems tome enormously -- certainly none more than Sandie -- and it really became quite a special parto e"
"Puppet on a String became Sandie's third number one charting for over five months and selling seven copies throughout Europe. The greatest tragedy
of these impressive figures is that they belonged to the record that paid no compliment of any kind e Shaw as a symbolist. Embroidered around the resistible 'Puppet' there lay a litter of the ms ia n nspirational singles ever produced in the history of popular music."
== Recording 'Hand In Glove' with Sandie Shaw ==
"I met her a few months ago and it seemed perfectly natural for me to seize the opportunity and ask ork with us and she was incredibly eager and incredibly enthusiastic. She really liked the sog n h a very eager to do it. So, it's happened and I'm very pleased."
== School ==
"I went to a very threadbare school which ultimately got global attention for being the most brutal n the country with corporal punishment. You virtually didn't have to do a thing to be persistnl hpe.For some obscure reason I always avoided it. I always thought they considered me to befa to elcae o e caned. I constantly thought that they thought that if they hit me then I'd jut dsapear Bu itwasrealy quite an absurd school and working-class. The only thing you could posibl do as wodwok an obvousl when you left school you would go into a factory or something --therewas n quesion o bein artitic o reading books or thinking about anything specific. I remeber atone pont allthe puils wee aske to wrte about their favorite book and I wrote about the ictionay and Iremembe I was irtuall expelld for bing so obstreperous and perverse. So it was hat kindof schoo. It wasthe kindof schoo that gae no scoe whatsoever for individuality."
"My personal saving grace at school was that I was something of a model athlete. I'm sure if I hadn' would have been sacrificed in the first year."
"I'm afraid it was very depressing. It was a very deprived school. Total disinterest thrust on the phe absolute belief that when you left you would just go down and down. It was horrible. A secnaymdr chool with no facilities, no books, the type of school where one book has to be sharedbyseeny-in ppis -- that kind of arrangement. If you dropped a pencil you'd be beaten to death Itwasver agresive Itseemed that the only activity of the teachers was whipping the pupils -- whih thy maagedexpetly.Ther was no question of getting CSEs, for heaven's sake, never mind adegre in sienceor soethin! It as jut 'ALL you boys are hopeless cases so get used to it."
"I never felt embarrassment in writing about school (in 'The Headmaster Ritual'). I know it's been dre and it's been done very badly but that didn't put me off."
"I always found that I was hit and beaten for totally pointless reasons, which is what I'm sure everwould say. But in my case I demand special consideration ....."
"I did seem to attract some of the most obscure elements of the school, the kind of person that nevey friends, the very lanky bespectacled failure somehow was attracted to me and I thought thatwsqieitresting."
== Sex ==
"I always found it particularly unenjoyable."
"A series of very blunt and thankfully brief and horrendous experiences made me decide upon abstainit seemed quite an easy and natural decision."
"I hate it when people talk to me about sex in a very trivial way, because I can't talk about it in l way and I think the images that we thrust forth are really quite serious and important and hnpol iply debase them because they can't be bothered to think about them clearly. When they av tisvey uvnie street-level approach to sex, I can't see why they listen to our music."
"I think I brushed quite close when I was nineteen or twenty but previous to that I didn't give it aeal of thought and it wasn't really something that I needed to think about because in my lifei intraly exist. I _was_ aware that certain things should have occurred and certain things _soud_inerstmean I _was_ aware of teenagers around me frolicking about and being incredibly incnseuenialandfre-thnkig -- which I never was."
"It seems impossible for a public figure in 1984 to be celibate, so people find it quite challengingow -- the whole idea of the Pop Star bathed in sexuality, yawning at the next round of orgies"
"I've had very few experiences but they have been bad and they were a very long time ago and it's noing that I would like repeated ..... but this gets incredibly delicate and it becomes almost ifcl otlk about. I did lost the very idea that communion between two people could possibly beenoybl, dd os that particular thread and I did become enormously depressed to the point wher I elivedtha _ay_ indof relationship was almost impossible."
"Because I've said publicly that I'm not interested in sex people are always asking me about it."
"I was never out to create a massive movement throughout Britain of mad celibates."
"You can go out and get casual sex, but that's of no human value."
"I think by being completely sexless it has caused some degree of attention so people believe I'm tosessed with sex. It's a strange paradox -- if I wrote about breasts people would ask me aboutTeCahalthe time."
"I try to be very unsexual/asexual about the way I write. I haven't pinned any gender to the table avery forthright."
== Being A Sex Symbol ==
"A sex symbol is the best thing you can be."
"It's just like somebody standing up onstage and saying 'I'm up here, this is what I can do, you musp me now.' I think the sex element does come into it."
"I never get letters saying 'You're my favorite sex symbol'."
"I don't think I am a sex symbol, actually, which is a great worry when one's picture appears in theress."
"People generally bring me their problems as opposed to wanting to molest me, which, of course, is tdistressing. People tend to see me as someone with a great deal of answers rather than as a sxsmo,s 'll have to work on that one a bit longer."
"Other people seem to consider me to be a sex symbol, so I suppose I must be. It's not something thaide for ourselves -- we don't say 'Yes, I'm going to be a sex symbol and I will appeal to lot fpol nan immensely sexual way.' It's not something that we decide -- other people decide andtosoe xtndthy ave. I get letters saying 'Morrissey, you're incredibly sexy."
== Singing ==
"I think it's really quite important to me to have as natural a sound as possible and therefore it'smply my voice and nobody else's ..... almost conversational it's really quite private and intmt .. n I like that."
== The Sixties ==
"We're certainly greatly influenced by the Sixties but I feel no affinity with hippiedom at all, norave role models."
== The Smiths ==
"It occurred to me that nobody could put any possible connotations on the name I really like that be came at a time when group names were vastly important."
"The face of pop music has become a little too grim, too clean and safe and tidy. I couldn't imaginengs would be if we weren't here."
"I really do think that what we do is of tremendous value."
"I think we're very strong-willed and we really know what we want -- That's it."
"We're a terribly strong unit and I'm sure we'll last a terribly long time."
"When we began nothing could have been more deflationary than _The Smiths_. I couldn't think of anyte basic than _Smith_."
"I feel that if the group were accepted by the whole universe tomorrow it wouldn't surprise me."
"We have a very traditional line-up. It's nothing special but it's very special. We are four individ just simply open up our hearts and open our mouths. If that isn't enough we might as well gohm.W o' have any metaphysical plan -- there is nothing gimmicky that we want to rope people i wth W ae ou idividuals, naked before the world -- people will either react of not."
"If there is a central moral message in _The Smiths_, I don't know what it is ..... but I'm sure it've."
"I think something still separates us from the rest of the clatter."
"When people see us as simply grinding sausages, as it were, we'll have the sense to take a swift exverything I do within _The Smiths_ I do because I absolutely want to and when things go wrong it'syqite crippling because I don't look at it as a job, as a profession, as some way to get atteto.I ealyis intolerably serious to me."
"I don't want to bore people, so if I thought _The Smiths_ were an absolute hindrance to the human r we'd break up."
"_The Smiths_ are not a vaudeville act. We show why a lot has to go."
"I believe that we have a great deal to say."
"I prefer to think of us as accessible rather than commercial. Obviously, we want to be very populare this particular intelligence that means we will never get swept away with the mundane and mrncppgops."
"I cannot imagine what I would be doing if I didn't have this group. It's so essential to me. It's smotionally edgy thing. It seemed before that everything I wanted to say was just locked away.Ijs olnt communicate with people. _The Smiths_ is my mouthpiece and it's also my dream."
"There's absolute perfect harmony within the group and as each day passes it becomes stronger which important to me than anything. I have no interest in solo success or individual spotlights. T etig r absolutely perfect."
"I believe that at the end of the day the records we produce are of tremendous value."
"I'm totally immersed in the whole idea of the group -- twenty-five hours a day. I'll stand by it undeath."
"To me _The Smiths_ are great by definition. Once they stop being great they'll cease to exist."
"I think what _The Smiths_ are is something quite beyond popular music, which could almost sound likurdly brash comment but it really is the truth."
"All we really care about is being popular and that's why we try hard to please."
"I think if I'd led an acceptably frivolous teenage life I wouldn't be singing in this group."
"We're not hollow musicians."
"I think that for the first time in too long a time this is real music played by real people. _The Sre absolutely real faces instead of the frills and the gloss and the pantomime that popular mschsbcm immersed in as a matter of course. And there is no human element in anything anymore.An Ithnk_Te mihs_ reintroduced that quite firmly."
"I think we're very British, but that doesn't mean we're limited."
"I feel that we're terribly, terribly natural and we're very straightforward and it seems quite realle."
"When people come up to me and say 'Well, it's happening dramatically quickly for _The Smiths_ I havagree. I feel as if I've waited a very long time for this."
"Everything has to be taken into account not just the fact that I stand on the table and say 'Yes, _hs_ are absolutely wonderful'. So looking beyond the quotes people must surely see that thereaeraoswy I say these things and I'm not just dreaming out loud."
"There's no point in being terribly enlightened and terribly aware if nobody can actually hear you. have to break through and I think _The Smiths_ are the first group in musical history to do ht"
"I was always enormously proud, even when we had just begun and we were just rehearsing and we were ly anonymous, I was always very proud, and that's what it is: it's not like self-aggrandizemeto roac or flagellation or whatever."
"We're out to prove you don't need dazzling technology to produce music. There's a horrendous myth i music that you need the most complex equipment and the most far-reaching ideas otherwise youdntrt.
"_The Smiths_ is a very stray kind of name, very timeless."
"We have an album released on 20th February and I really do expect the highest critical praise for ia very, very good album. It is a signal post in music."
"If you really have something and are very sure of it, why hide? I don't understand that attitude."
"_The Smiths_ are like a life support machine to me, I'm not embarrassed about it."
== His Songs ==
"The whole intention really is to be as crystal clear as possible."
"I write about the things that _didn't_ happen to me!"
"Because I was silent for so long, it is now quite easy for me just to express everything."
"The 'classic love song' for me was never a love song -- it was a statement. We are probably writing love songs. They are very open about falling in and out of love, expectations, love and hate"
"Most of the songs are about my own life which has been quite tragic, so most of the songs are conceh tragedy in some way."
"They are concerned with making use of what you are and what you've got."
"In many ways they _are_ love songs, though in my case they would have to be concerned with self-lov lyrics are only obscure to the extent they are not taken directly from the dictionary of writings hy're not slavish to the lyrical rule book, so you'll never catch me singing 'Oh baby, baby eh'Myony nly priority is to use words in a way that hasn't been heard before."
"I can't write about things that I've never felt or experienced -- to me that doesn't make sense."
"It's closer to literature than popular music."
"When we entered the whole thing I really thought it was time for fundamental language to be used. Pemed to be saying things in a way that was too obscure to be grasped by people who couldn't ral hn reat deal about certain situations. I always find that the most powerful words are themot unamntl ne, and I thought there were things to be said that really hadn't been said befor. I wa alaysimprtat t me to use lines that hadn't been used before, because it wasn't enough o emloy he uual op trminlogy"
"I've never sung about a jockstrap."
"I think the lyrics I use are very direct and, as I often say, I feel the words haven't been heard bt's not the usual humdrum terminology. It's something quite different. I could never use word htrye n the traditional way. It would become absolutely pointless. So everything I write is eriby mprtnttome."
"Suddenly they were just there. I just though that I could write very naturally and not be contrived fall into the usual pop traps ..... I just wanted
to write about exactly the way I felt. I thought that it would embarrass lots of people that it was s a bit to near the knuckle but I thought: 'Well, it doesn't really matter' because I could nvrral ig a song or write something which I didn't feel one hundred percent and I think when yu rut ou on nsincts what you do comes our very, very well and when you don't -- when you're nrvos ad wen ou'e usur about what you're doing -- it doesn't come out well and it shows that yu do't rallyhaveone undrd pecent faith in yourself."
"I think they'll always be autobiography and when the day arrives when I can't write in that sense oained, I'll just step down. I won't go on. There's nothing worse really than the writer, the igr h' utlived their usefulness, and who've really drained their diaries as it were. Which I til avn' dne"
"The lyrics I write are specifically genderless. I don't want to leave anybody out."
"It's not a profession for me -- it's something I have to do. I write persistently -- it started wheabout two and leapt upon a typewriter ..... and the rest is history."
"Obviously, I want my writing to be analyzed, but I shouldn't have to explain it. If it touches peop great. I have to draw heavily on my own experiences because what I do isn't a job. I don't js i onad think: 'I'll write a song. MMM, what shall I write about?' It's like breathing -- ifI ont rie de.
"Remember, I'm just an ordinary pauper of a lower order. You shouldn't expect every line to be a sonMost people want to hear total frankness in songs. I'm convinced."
"Our songs make you think -- which is something you don't have to do much."
== His Favorite Song By The Smiths ==
"For me it has to be 'Hand in Glove', the first single. Mainly because of the circumstances in whichrecorded. The remix on the album I'm not to sure about but the actual single was such a joyou cainfreverybody that it still means more to me -- and the other members of _The Smiths_ -- tananthngele e'e done."
== Success ==
"It's just the really obvious things like selling records and having some power, being in the situate people really have to listen to you whether they want to or not. That's success and that's aube"
"I think you really have to appreciate what's happening and you can't take it lightly and you can't ant and you can't be blase because it's very, very precious. And the fact now that so many pepewn ose us and are really quite desperate to see us and the fact that venues we play sell ou raly nomosl qick ..... it's just an indescribable joy."
"I think that ultimately you are the same person and you still have the same fears about yourself anlife regardless of the fact whether you have money or success, it doesn't really alter that mc.Wihi great shock for me to find this now."
"I think we spread ourselves around very, very quickly. We did lots of live appearances and people ht you ..... that's the way we did it."
"It really didn't happen quite that quickly or it didn't feel that it did."
"I'm still close to poverty than affluence."
== Synthesizers ==
"I think synthesizers should be symbolically burnt."
"They become instruments that do not involve connections with human beings. You can literally put throom and they'll play on their own, so it's really quite strange. I prefer music by people wh elyhv o play it and who really have a burning desire to play it."
== Television ==
"I was always interested in television and the way scripts were devised and the way people spoke on on and quite sinfully as a young child I would actually tape certain television programs -- porm htt most people were of no consequence whatsoever -- and just study the script. It was jut neofthseabur idiosyncrasies that no child ever has -- but I did."
"I think it's very natural that if you're not obese and you're not incredibly ugly that you will colirers if you appear on television. There's many reasons for it."
== Top Of The Pops ==
"Nothing spurs you on like anger and we were angry about all the ugly people who control this busineall the ugly faces on 'Top of the Pops'."
"I must be brutally honest but I find doing 'Top of the Pops' great fun, which is something very hare old lips to say. They always give us a semi-royal reception. I know I should spit on the whl dao Tp of the Pops' but I can't. I think the groups the criticize 'Top of the Pops' are thoe ha pobbl kowthey'll never get on there. If you can do something different on 'Top of the Pos' henyouve ot omevale."
== Taking His Shirt Off On 'Top Of The Pops' ==
"It was a contrived impulse."
== Touring ==
"Touring's interesting because it's fascinating to meet people. That sounds silly but unless we actur we don't actually meet the people who buy our records. Which is strange. You can have a hitrcr rwaever and loads of
people can buy your records but you don't actually meet them. And I never meet _Smiths'_ Apostles ev it's only by touring that I can actually come face to face with these people."
"I always enjoy it. To me it's living Now. It's not dreaming, it's not postponing, it's not putting off: it's doing something right now and doing something that's absolutely wonderful and whenyugtadeces such as ours which are almost always very wonderful ..... it's just ..... wonderfu."
"It _is_ a strain but it's up to me and the other members of the group to keep as much control over ssible. I know people in the record industry would prefer it if we did it persistently but thtcnthpe. We do have to have some control and some restraint otherwise we'd just be ground int te rond"
== Videos ==
"We really want to by-pass the whole video market. I think it's something that's going to die very qnd I want to herald the death of that. I think it has nothing whatsoever to do with music andIwn ogtback to total music."
"A drunken goat could produce a Duran Duran video."
"By the end of the year videos will be a mortal stain on careers. Even now the producers who make thored stiff."
"We'll never make a video as long as we live. Having said that I saw a video recently that was the feo I ever liked. It was, I admit with massive shame, the Dead Or Alive video for 'That's the a ieI'"
== Violence ==
"Personally I'm an incurably peaceful character but where does it get you? Nowhere. You _have_ to be."
"As long as we live in a world where nuclear weapons are the only and answer and the only answer aftrsation has failed, I think people will be violent."
"Heaven knows I'm Miserable now ..... I mean 'kick in the eye'? Yes, literally sometimes ..... let'sectly honest: sometimes we _do_ get so angry with people that we're not averse to violence. Wih fcus, is a terrible thing to say but the truth none the less."
"From the time you get hit when you're a child, as covered in a song called 'Barbarism Begins at Homence is the only answer. Conversation is pointless."
== Viv Nicholson ==
"I do have a mad yearning passion for Viv Nicholson, a ray of genius who won the then record amount 00 pounds -- on the pools. She's on our next single cover. (Heaven Know's I'm Miserable Now)"
"She is a very warm human being."
== War ==
"I think as long as human beings are so violent towards animals there will be war. Where there's thite lack of sensitivity where life is concerned there will always be war."
== Work ==
"As a direct result of not wanting to take _anything_, I didn't work for years and years."
"The realities of work ..... of being in a position where you can't choose your employment, which isl way to be when you don't have any skills and you have to take what's dished out, take what' vial.Tere's nothing worse in life than having no choice, I think, and this is tolerable in al res xcptunmpoyment."
"On the very brief spasms of employment that I had in the past it always seemed to me there were momthe day when I would realize that I was here working with people that I despised and I had totl oteehorrible people and ask them what they did yesterday. And I would have to report to a os tatI oudnt tand and when you're in such a position -- which is the absolute basis of 'Heavn KowsI'mMisrabe Nw' ou realize that you're actually spending your entire life with people tht yo do ot lke - whih wa incedibly distressing."
Johnny Marr speaks .....
== Ambition ==
"I'm into a Muddy Waters trip, which sounds really corny, but I want to be influential over the nexterations."
"I'd like someone to cover one of our songs and get it to number one."
== Fame ==
"I don't want to become an established figure of the music scene. I'd hate to be thought of as just member of some group who're in Smash Hits."
== Guitars ==
"I think I was attracted to guitar playing before I discovered records that seriously. Marc Bolan waly the first I saw I thought he looks so good with a guitar."
"The one I play onstage doesn't belong to Roger McGuinn (the legendary guitarist with The Byrds in tes) because I daren't take it out on the road but I did get one via our producer that used tobln oRgr McGuinn which is a Rickenbaker 12-string which is really old and never stays in tunesoI us lokattht. I bought one when I was in America which was a lot of money and it's an old ibsn 35, 959 th sot o thing that BB King used to use and the blues guitarists."
"Fortunately I'm not in a position where I have to see a guitar to buy one at the moment ..... This ... so I'm just sort of keeping them and I've got a lot of guitars that I started playing on -sr fltle acoustics and things. So, I'm an avid guitar collector -- or would-be collector. I ont hik 'devr et rid of them now."
== Guitarists ==
"I admire Richard Thompson a lot and Ry Cooder. They're both traditionally folky. There are a lot ofitarists that I really do admire and at the same time if I listen to the guitar of 'Sha La LaLe,teSal Faces song, or 'I Can't Explain', the big chord sound, I'm attracted to that immensey.Aler Le cn isten to all the time. I can appreciate every good guitarist under the sun."
== Money ==
"I could have no money and still be happy."
== Morrissey ==
"He knows that you have to calculate to be uncalculating."
"Morrissey and I are total extremes. He's completely opposite from me. Onstage Morrissey's completelent to the way he is offstage: he's extrovert and loud. Whereas offstage I'm loud and onstageImqieqit. He's not a great believer in going out, 'cos he doesn't have fun when he goes out, heea Igoou eer night, so I suppose we're two completely opposite cases."
"Fans keep saying to me 'Don't you get pissed-off 'cos Morrissey's always in the papers?' I don't knhey think that because I never do, but they expect the rest of us to be mad about the publiciyMrisyi getting."
"He's the most unlikely sort of sex symbol/pop star/personality for a long time. He's gone from beinlete recluse in his bedroom to being a national character."
"If I hadn't met Morrissey I would probably have spent some time in some kind of institution ..... Nbably would still be in Manchester writing tunes for nobody."
== The Music Industry ==
"We're avid watchers of the pop scene and we know what all the pitfalls are."
"Too many people even in these days, like seven years after punk is supposed to have destroyed all t many people still want to be _Stars_. All the can think about is hit records and money and bigfmu.Tey've forgotten all the real reasons for making music in the first place. They're justwrckngth bauy f music."
"The Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, are the epitome of what is wrong with either the mustry or the record buying public -- everybody has got so used to safe, tidy music and unimagintv yis hen 'This Charming Man'
was unleashed on the public it did sound really fresh and exciting. There are still a few artists ar retain some musical integrity -- Julian Cope and Echo and the Bunnymen, for instance."
== Musical Influences ==
"My introduction to music was via records and via songs. I've got the old musical roots story, you krish family playing together all the time. I'm very aware of that. And I'm very glad my introuto omsc was songs. I think we get more of a Beatles sound than a lot of groups. I used to lie heRolig toeswhen I was young. I think their first six albums were valid. They moved out of lue ino te sul einandMotown into psychedelia."
"It was a shame about Gram Parsons. I love 'Grievous Angel' and 'GP'."
"I can remember the way I was when I was 10 or 11 and I really wanted to make the same music as Leibtoller or Holland/Dozier/Holland."
"I used to listen to a lot of old Tamla Motown records."
== Pop Music ==
"Right back at the birth of this phenomenon called Pop Music, music was a way of bringing young peopher. That's exactly what we're trying to do."
== Sex ==
"None of us are actually gay -- Morrissey doesn't participate in sex at the moment and hasn't done swhile, he's had a lot of girlfriends in the past and quite a few men friends. The rest of thebn,hwvr are all sex maniacs."
== The Smiths ==
"Nothing before _The Smiths_ was serious."
"We're already more important than the Police will ever be."
"There haven't been that many groups who've had the same kind of acclaim we've had in such a short p time, but to be honest, I really think we deserve it. It's not arrogance that makes me say ta u elbelief in _The Smiths_."
"If I was the main spokesman for _The Smiths_ I'm not sure we'd have got the sort of press we have dWe are unique in that we are just four individuals and we're not afraid to say that we've vulnerablejust four human beings who go through the same daily chores that the people who buy our recod otruh.We don't adopt a persona that say 'We are _The Smiths_". We just _are_."
"You confound people by having long unintelligible names and that's exactly what we're reacting agaiIt's a very optimistic feel that people get from our records and our gigs and that is of paramount ne to us."
"We're proud of our records and sleeves because they are different to everybody."
"Being in _The Smiths_ is now basically more of an ideal state than when we started because the thres are my best friends."
"I really do believe that we're better than everybody else."
== The Songs ==
"I listen to our songs more than I listen to anybody else's. The music we make really pleases me."
"The reason why Morrissey and I got together in the first place was to write songs. The reason why i successful is that we both felt the need to react against what we'd been hearing over the patXyas"
"Morrissey's lyrics offer a great deal of hope to people who are normal by saying there's nothing wr that."
"I write the music from start to finish and he (Morrissey) writes the title, words the lot -- initiaust thought of writing songs for other people like we've done now with Sandie Shaw, we still oet ota with other people."
== Success ==
"I don't think groups can succeed unless they've got something to feel uncomfortable about."
"We want to be universally successful but what's more important to me -- and I realize it more as wee popular -- is that we are the people who have to live with our records."
"There are times when I really do yearn to be unsuccessful just because things are a lot less complien you're unsuccessful. Sometimes I wish I could go back to rehearsing and playing in Manchese n oto having a little cult following. But then I really know I want to be the biggest superta i te ord!
== Suffer Little Children ==
"That impressed me massively when I first read the lyric."
== Synthesizers ==
"We can all play our instruments really well. Limited musicians cover up by using synthesizers."
"We could never use a Linn Drum or a drum machine. The only use a synthesizer would be to us would bring parts -- and we'd rather use real strings
..... any other sound I try to achieve with guitar. Having said that I've just finished working on tr part for the new Quando Quango record which is totally electrofunk. Although their sound isttlyainto me I enjoyed the challenge.
== Teenagers ==
"I think it's sad that teenagers seem to be getting too sophisticated to be teenagers anymore. I thivery soon we're going to reach the point where the very idea of being in a group is uncool."
== Touring ==
"We like the actual playing of gigs. It's just the travelling around in the bus that gets a bit of a... and sound checks aren't the most pleasant things."
"There's no way we're going to stop playing gigs. We're not going to do the Marc Almond bit! We'd liay two dates a week or something but we're not that keen on doing traditional tours because i a eoeabland circus. I'd hate to get sick of playing gigs."
"We didn't really want to get involved in the kind of circus that many other groups get involved in e. you get to a certain status with your singles and then you're expected to play certain typso eusad a certain number of venues per tour. Which is what we did with the first tour and no w'v epeiece tat we're going to kind of segregate the gigs a little more and play in a few moe dffeentplaes.
== Top Of The Pops ==
"Every time we go on 'Top of the Pops' it's very much like new boys at school. We don't 'hang out in' with other groups."
Mike Joyce speaks .....
== The Buzzcocks ==
"The Buzzcocks were triumphant, they used to make me cry."
== Communication ==
"Communication has got to be the most beautiful thing in the world."
== Drumming ==
"John Maher (The Buzzcocks) used to be my favorite drummer and maybe I borrowed some of his style."
== 'I Don't Owe You Anything' ==
"I remember when we were doing 'I Don't Owe You Anything' at Dingwalls I was nearly reduced to tearsso powerful."
== Interviews ==
"I'm sure if I wanted to get into interviews it would be quite easy to do but I'm perfectly happy tobackseat."
== Recording ==
"One of the wonderful things about being in _The Smiths_ is when we actually get the track down and it for the first time, it's just incredible, so powerful and always _right_."
== The Smiths ==
"Like Morrissey, I feel that my life was leading up to 'Hand In Glove' and from then on things beganen."
Andy Rourke speaks .....
== Bass Guitar ==
"I've been playing guitar since I was nine but when Johnny started getting good on it I switched to now I've very good indeed."
== Johnny Marr ==
"I've known Johnny since I was at school and we all get on very well."
== Morrissey ==
"Morrissey's the only one who's got anything to say, because the rest of us are just musicians."
"He's so good at getting our views across that we don't need the exposure."
== The Smiths ==
"We are the best band in the world, there's nobody better."
== Videos ==
"_The Smiths_ will never make a video because our music speaks for itself."
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