I don't want to go on much longer, really. I think that would suggest a lack of imagination. A certain lack of dignity also.
Even though I've been reasonably well known for quite a long time, I still can't get a record on daytime radio or on MTV.
I don't necessarily think that the world should know everything, and even if you consider yourself to be extremely honest, that doesn't mean you have to blurt everything out all the time.
If you travel to Germany, it's still absolutely Germany. If you travel to Sweden, it still has a Swedish identity.
When you're younger, you see the people who are in power and think they must have that position because of some degree of skill. And as you get older, you realize it's not true, that most people in those positions are absolutely inept. And this natur...
Racism is beyond common sense and has no place in our society.
If you love animals, obviously it doesn't make sense to hurt them.
I have no love for myself as a human being, but I have immense pride in the music I make.
The paradox is that I have no love for myself as a human being, but I have immense pride in the music I make, and I believe it has an important place. Others do, too, and the thousands of people with Morrissey tattoos certainly proves something.
War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.
I find that it isn't wise to attempt to judge people on their public persona, and even on the music they make. Because I've met so many people whose music I cannot stand, and they're very nice. At the same time, I've met people whose music I've loved...
The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.
I think the pop chart today is entirely market-driven. And it has nothing to do with public taste. And it has nothing to do with moving music forward. It's simply a market chart.
I've never intended to be controversial, but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.
I first bought a Buffy Sainte-Marie record when I was 12, and her music has always remained with me. In the 1960s, as a political activist, Buffy's lyrics were fearless, and I'm very grateful for all the risks that she took.
I've only been to Ireland once, and I felt I would wake up with voices in my head, almost like music, and that if I were a songwriter, I would be very inspired.
I think there are unseen powers who don't want pop music to be anything other than glorified Madonnas.
My parents were worried about me, certainly when I became so deeply interested in music and people like the New York Dolls who, at the time, were very peculiar indeed.
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.
What's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn't.
Any criticism of Thatcher throws a dangerously absurd light on the entire machinery of British politics. Thatcher's name must be protected, not because of all the wrong that she had done, but because the people around her allowed her to do it.
