"I’ve not done any of this for superstardom, quite the opposite. I threw away the rock star mantle. And for that, there’s resentment too: ‘How dare he, how dare he.’"

"I wanted them to see the gloriousness of the California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah desert. So every chance we got, we stopped the bus and just absorbed that dead heat beauty and that terrain."

"The only things I’ve ever confronted are institutions, religion, politics, but never my fellow human beings, and yet my fellow human beings find the need to defend those very things that are restricting their freedoms. God, that sounds like a speech. Should I run for president?"

"Almost killed me, nothing to be laughed at. But oddly enough it’s something that made me. Without that, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today, so thank God I almost died. The pain I had to endure of losing my memory and forgetting who I was — that’s always still in me. I never explained it until the book, and the songs — what agony that was for me. My greatest sense of achievement was conquering that."

"The class system is there to remind you that you’re just a dirty oik because you came from that side of the tracks."

"It’s a family house."

"Turn the other cheek too often and you get a razor through it."

"You don't write "God Save The Queen" because you hate the English race, you write a song like that because you love them; and you're fed up with them being mistreated."

"How can you ban language, words? How're words offensive? And why should I have to tolerate YOUR interpretation? I'm the one using the word. ASK me how I'm using it, don't TELL me. And if you don't like the way I'm using it, so what? It's my right. It's my freedom of expression. Without that, we're nothing but slaves. My language, now fuck off!!!"

"[On Sid Vicious] Yes I can take on England, but I couldn't take on one heroin addict."

"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. Once I come off? I could eat a scampied elephant between two buttered mattresses. But I'm kinda glad about the stage fright. I've read Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud about their terror. And I reckon it's what gets the adrenalin going."

"[Replying to the question of the presenter: "where did the name "Sex Pistols" come from, who thought this name up?"] Some animal. I can't remember. It doesn't matter. It's history."

"When I first heard it, I thought that's extremely challenging, the vocal — it was almost hysterical, and it was so up there, the register, but it was absolutely fascinating. And I know at the time a lot of my friends couldn't bear it, they thought it was just "too much" — but that's exactly what drew me in."

"It's no more of that 12 bar ditty wavy hair in the breeze platform boots flap your flare nonsense. It's not a packaged image of third-rate idiots. It's not a pose. We just do our stuff. Hate it as it usually is, you know I was very shocked by the reviews of the last album. I believe none of them. They liked us for the wrong reasons, trendy reasons."

"Punk is like looking at a mirror. I already have a mirror so I don't need the Offspring to remind me how gorgeous I am."

"Joe Strummer, God bless him, he's gone and he shall be missed. But how dare he preach class war with an organisation like that [the late '80s Rock Against The Rich movement]. Living in a huge house in Holland Park. Every photo opportunity to be seen on a bus in his leather jacket, and then he went back to a palace. You're not getting it quite right there! That's where his image mattered more to him than the reality. He was trying to con us. In a nice way and for the right reasons but once you start lying it carries on and on and on."

"If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago."

"England's a violent place. Too violent for me. That's why I prefer it here (the USA). For a gun-toting nation, Americans are surprisingly passive. This place suits me and the wife."

"[On the lyrics of his songs] They meant a lot to my generation. And it's nice to know you've written songs that mean something to someone rather than some trivial pop dirge. I'm not thriving off a career slagging off the Queen. I think I have something valid to say. My words are my bullets. I like to brag that somehow I got it right."

"My favourite album by her is The Dreaming, and I think she produced that one herself. That got a lot of criticism — but I loved it. It was overloaded with textures, and tones and all manner of things. It’s a record that I still can play to this day, and still hear new things."

"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? Good night!"

"Are you really going to hand over the White House to a real estate agent? [...] I want a wig just like that one."

"A patriot is someone who cares what happens in their country."

"Our enemy really isn't capitalism, it's cynicism. That's one the things I learned from Woody … Not to be cynical … That cynicism … It destroys you, it rots you away from the inside. So that sense of optimism and humanity … which 20 years ago I would have called socialism but now I'll call compassion … You know, that idea is still out there and alive and if you can plug into that and encourage that it makes it all worth while."

"I can't express myself 'cause I'm not fully grown."

"I wish I was fiction, I wish I was fact."

"It's about, you know, how the world is so...fucking doomed. Sort of an apocalyptic album but I want it to be quite cartoony in a way."

"My heartache, is my mistake you see."

"I need to build a wall around me. But I want to smile with everybody. Would you say that is possessive of me?"

"If I had sharp claws I'd get on all fours. And scratch your back for free."

"I'm not scared of dying. I'm not scared of death. I'll keep a smile 'til my last breath. I've loved 'til I've lost. I've lived how I felt. One day I will find peace within myself."

"Yes we feel bad in winter. We act a little bit strange. The dark sky threatens me daily. Makes me alter and mood change, change, change, change."

"Who's to say that every performer should be a good actor? Why can't you just be yourself?"

"I want to take all the sadness. Of the world from your shoulders. I want to take all the sadness. Of the world from your shoulders. I want to take all the sadness."

"I drink a lot of wine when I'm alone."

"Well I've travelled around the earth and still I wonder if I'm the first human being who questions his worth."

"When you're on your own. You walk in the rain."

"And every word that you speak makes my heart sing when it's weak for often this outlook on life can be bleak."

"I see my body float like leaves. Every day I want to breathe. Rap my knuckles till they bleed. A river deep."

"Once I was a shadow of man. Most dark nights my head was in its hands."

"I begged God to cure my aching limbs. But he did nothing, he gave me no advice. Didn't this God abandon Jesus Christ? Oh if it comes to you, I'll die for your sins."

"If the world did end. Would you be my apocalyptic friend?"

"I guess it's you I miss. 'Cause I just stare at the ceiling. My stomach knots and twists. You've created this feeling. And I may be out of style. But do you know what true love is? I'll make this all so worthwhile. So let's rise above this. Let's rise above this."

"There's something in my eye. Bloodshot in disguise. God knows I really tried. Making the big time. Aiming to climb high."

"Oh, I'm staying in today. And watch the others play. Oh, wash my sins away. Like all good children I mean what I say."

"So I said I don't mind if I lose. 'Cause if I win I'll be so confused"

"And if you need to kiss me. Then you'll most definitely miss me. When I'm gone."

"I guess God has the last laugh. From up on high he lets us kill. And his people die for their faith. And we call it triumph of the will."

"God, you make me sing. Funny things about you You infect my mind. All the time, you do."