Pete Doherty: Quotes about people

“With Oasis stepping up a gear and proving they've still got it, they need to be shown there are people out there who can surpass them. Can we match them? The quality is good (in Oasis), but there really is no competition because my band is the greatest in the world and we're going to prove it.”

Pete Doherty

May 2009, latest news
Oasis (band)

People , World

“I made this big statement saying, "I've left The Libertines." A couple of people said, "You can't do that! You're such a great band! What are you gonna do about Brixton?" And some people said, "Well, I'd rather be here than Brixton." There's no reason you can't do both. If I was 16 or 17 and Morrissey opened his front door to me and let me go and listen to him and chat to him it would be a joy. Why not? It's possible. I don't really have that much else going on in my life.”

Pete Doherty

On removing the barriers between performers and audiences, NME (New Musical Express), March 13, 2004.
People

Life , People , Joy

“Mental-stability, I would say. I’d like to achieve a fluidity, where everything stays consistent – always doing shows, always with the chance to release records, meeting new people.”

Pete Doherty

Rockfeedback.com (around 2002), when asked about his goals for the future.
Miscellaneous

People , Chance

“It's that mysterious thing called hype. I've looked under every rock, and I couldn't find out what it means. Certain people hear a certain melody, and they're attracted to it. I'm in love with that feeling. We're looking for fun and adventure and a bit of redemption and somewhere to live. Everything else is a blind venture into the unknown.”

Pete Doherty

Definitions and objects

Love , People , Feeling

“You've got to understand… these days I just can't afford to get involved [with the press]. People - they turn on you… on me. They write horrible things, deliberately twisting my words.”

Pete Doherty

On his growing wariness in talking to the media, Spin Magazine, Autumn 2007.
People

People , Understanding

“I do have utopian fantasies. A lot of them are more - I wouldn't say spiritual, but they relate more to the imagination and the individual. But for me socialism is a way of trying to put far-fetched ideas into everyday use, trying to find a way to bridge the gap between that fantasy and reality, and reaching out across that gap to the people who can actually do something to make the change.”

Pete Doherty

Definitions and objects

People , Way , Imagination , Idea

“It's not people in bands, is it? Why do people who take drugs, why are they in bands? 'Cos they're trying to prove themselves. To make themselves blank and numb and not able to communicate with other people.”

Pete Doherty

October 2002, NME (New Musical Express); when asked why people in bands take drugs
Drugs

People , Communication

“They left me, by the side of the road, with a plastic bag and all kinds of bitterness Well, in my mind, and I can say this forever I suppose, and people might laugh at it, but I don't think I ever really left The Libertines, nor can I ever leave The Libertines, you know, having been a founder of the band with Carl, but that sounds silly, doesn't it, seeing as they played all the festivals without me and made it difficult, no - impossible, for me to play live with them.”

Pete Doherty

December 2004, Newsnight; when asked whether he left The Libertines or The Libertines left him
Music and politics

People , Thinking

“Basically, too many other people made important decisions for us and we just wrote songs and worried about clothes and girls. In the early days he came round once with this girl who had convinced him that I was just a weirdo and that we had an unhealthy relationship. He sat me down and said, “Maybe we shouldn’t see so much of each other? Maybe we should knock the band on the head? It’s not really going anywhere, is it?" I was desperate for us to stick together and see it through because I never stopped believing. When we got signed, Carl was shocked. I had prepared myself and had been reading the NME since I was 16. Carl wasn’t like that.”

Pete Doherty

Mail On Sunday, September 2008
Carl Barat

People , Girl , Decision , Reading

“I think it's woken me up to a few things, and you do become complacent. As well as being anti something, you've got to be pro something. So you're anti racism, so what are you pro? You're pro community. I would put my hand on my heart and I'd attach myself to socialist ideas. Because I believe in society. And it's bollocks that black people have any less worth in society than white people, which is basically what people like the BNP say.”

Pete Doherty

2004, The Socialist Review; on what the Love Music, Hate Racism campaign could achieve today
Music and politics

People , Communication , Idea , Thinking

“I realise it’s proved to people that I don’t love them. It’s dawning on me now that if I say I love someone… it’s like lying, really. As long as I’m taking it, the lie continues. I’ve got a lot of proving myself to do.”

Pete Doherty

The Sunday Times, May 14, 2006
Drugs

Love , People , Lie , Lying

“Something good has happened to us. We are, dare I say it, a professional unit these days. When people get us in a room together now, they actually treat us like musicians. Before, they would treat us as anything but: pigeon fanciers, candles, dry humpers…”

Pete Doherty

Talking about Babyshambles to Spin Magazine, Autumn 2007
Definitions and objects

People

“I'm not going to be hardened by these people, to these things, I'm not going to let them destroy my feelings or my emotions.”

Pete Doherty

Who The Fuck is Pete Doherty (2005)
People

People , Feeling