“I used to go to school with my hair looking like Johnny Thunders', totally sewn into my jeans and wearing women's shoes and a Sex T-shirt from Malcolm McLaren's shop. I'd turn up every day looking like this Martian. I used to get abused all the time, but I didn't give a shit in those days. I knew I was onto something”
- Mick Jones
“I was a bit shocked when I first heard The Clash because it was totally different. Most young people, myself included, liked It because it was a way of rebelling”
– Brian Parcell.
“Hearing ‘Rock the Casba’ whilst I was driving back from London was probably my earliest memory of The Clash and what stood out was how they were the only band for me at the time, that I’d heard that managed to blend genres so well and still make it sound incredibly organic”
– Nathan Mallett.
“When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn't exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.”
- Mark E. Smith
“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.”
- John Lydon
"The great thing about punk was you had to decide, almost instantly whether you were for it or against it. It was so hardline. I remember listening to local radio, Radio Hallam, and the DJ said, Well, you will not be bearing any punk rock on this station. It's terrible."
- Jarvis Cocker.
"I was only nine years old in 1976 so I wasn't down the front at the 100 Club, I was still watching Doctor Who. Like everything in those days it probably filtered through slowly to Haywards Heath Market. It was the first record I bought. It was shockingly brilliant, and is one of those records that if you played it in 200 years time it would still sound like that. I think that they perfectly defined their own genre. They were the ultimate punk band. The other so-called punk bands to me sound like a parody of the Sex Pistols."
- Brett Anderson
“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.”
― Avril Lavigne
“Punk’s scare me”
- Ellie Whittaker
“Punk became a movement because we all felt lost”
- Crass
“I like music that's more offensive. I like it to sound like nails on a blackboard, get me wild.”
- Iggy Pop
“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
“Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don’t let them take you alive”
-Sid Vicious
“I'm a culture vulture, and I just want to experience it all”
- Debbie Harry
“Other people will call me a rebel, but I just feel like I’m living my life and doing what I want to do. Sometimes people call that rebellion, especially when you’re a woman”
- Joan Jett.