Recommended quotes

“It didn’t pay very much, but it enabled me to get other jobs doing art criticism, which I didn’t want to do very much, but as so often when you exhibit reluctance to do something, people think you must be very good at it. If I had set out to be an art critic, I might never have succeeded.”

John Ashbery (1927–2017) poet from the United States

Source: The Paris Review (Issue 90, Winter 1983)

People , Art , Thinking

“If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more.”

Eric Shinseki (1942) retired United States Army four-star general, seventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Quoted in Mackubin Thomas Owens, "Marines Turned Soldiers", National Review Online, December 10, 2001

Change

“Let’s be realistic … it’s arson. Everybody knows that. You can judge it by the speed by which the corporate media rushed to call it an accident even though the fire had just started and no one was in any position to know anything. Brainwashing! It’s a bit like hearing the full reason behind a plane crash even though the plane has yet to hit the ocean.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

The Interview https://www.morrisseycentral.com/messagesfrommorrissey/234417-the-interview, June 24 2019, morrisseycentral.com
About the Notre Dame fire

Speed

“When you're young, you're afraid of being alone. Solitude is a burden and you try to escape from it. You always wonder when it's going to come to an end. Sometimes you can't get rid of it. At the age of 38, you use it in a different way. You've learned how to live with it, and you don't try to get rid of it by all means anymore. After all you may call this resignation, but I don't think it's harmful. You're not just standing there, in pain, asking yourself 'Why am I alone? Why don't I go out?' etc. You don't ask yourself these questions anymore. You adapt yourself. Living alone does not mean living in nothingness.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

From "My gilded prison", interview by J. C. Panek, L'Indic magazine https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Indic_magazine (November 1997).
In interviews etc., About love

Pain , Age , Way , Question

“I say a lot of things I don’t mean.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

interview by Andrew Harrison, Word Magazine (June 2003)
In interviews etc., About interviews

“Oh, the alcoholic afternoons
when we sat in your room
they meant more to me
than any, than any living thing on earth”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

From the song "These Things Take Time"
From songs

Alcohol

“Nobody can possibly be so hungry that they need to take a life in order to feel satisfied – they don't after all, take a human life, so why take the life of an animal? Both are conscious beings with the same determination to survive. It is habit, and laziness and nothing else.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Autobiography

Life , Feeling , Animals

“I find Christmas very difficult”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Morrissey's reply to a fan's question "What do you think of Christmas?" at Earl's Court 18th December 2004[citation needed]
In Concert

Christmas

“I've been dreaming of a time when
The English are sick to death of Labour and Tories
And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell and denounce this royal line that still salutes him
And will salute him forever.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

from the 2004 song "Irish Blood, English Heart"
From songs

Death , Dreams , Time

“Music that is in the charts today is quite dreadful. I find it a great honour that I have never been considered for awards, such as NME etc. It is a personal victory. All awards shows should be banned!”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Speaking on Radio 2 in 2009
In interviews etc., About pop culture

Music , Victory , Personality

“But, ultimately, I don't have very cast iron opinions on black music other than black modern music which I detest. I detest Stevie Wonder. I think Diana Ross is awful. I hate all those records in the Top 40 - Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston. I think they're vile in the extreme. In essence this music doesn't say anything whatsoever.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

From "Home thoughts from abroad", article by Frank Owen, Melody Maker (27 Sep 1986)
In interviews etc., About other artists

Hate , Music , Thinking

“The British judiciary continues to label animal protectionists as 'extremists', whilst being unable to consider the Holocaust carnage inside every abattoir to be extreme.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Autobiography

Animals

“I can smell burning flesh … and I hope to God it's human.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

"… midway through his performance, he was overcome with fumes from the backstage barbecue." - Tim Jonze Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/20/morrissey-coachella-meat-fumes/. Live at Coachella festival, California (2009)
In Concert

God , Hope

“When you’re a teenager and in your early twenties it seems desperately eternal and excruciatingly painful. Whereas as you grow older you realise that most things are excruciatingly painful and that is the human condition. Most of us continue to survive because we’re convinced that somewhere along the line, with grit and determination and perseverance, we will end up in some magical union with somebody. It’s a fallacy, of course, but it’s a form of religion. You have to believe. There is a light that never goes out and it’s called hope.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

from "I've always felt like an exile" by Andrew Billen in The Times (30th May 2006)
In interviews etc., About love

Pain , Religion , Hope , Light

“I know I've reached the stage where other artists would bleach their hair or buy a fancy costume, but, inexcusably, I can only be me, which is a full-time occupation and causes terrible backaches.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

From "I’ll astonish you", interview by Len Brown, Details (March 1991).
In interviews etc., About himself and his work

Time

“Age shouldn't affect you. It's just like the size of your shoes - they don't determine how you live your life! You're either marvellous or you're boring, regardless of your age.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

from "The cradle snatchers", article by Frank Worrall, Melody Maker (3 September 1983)
In interviews etc., About life and death

Life , Age , Shoe

“There is no such thing in life as normal”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Lauretta Bender / Quotes / 1954 Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, "Testimony of Dr. Lauretta Bender, senior psychiatrist, Belleveu hospital Newyork N.Y." http://www.thecomicbooks.com/bender.html
From songs

Sad , Moving On , Life

“It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate, it takes strength to be gentle and kind.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

from the 1986 song "I Know It's Over"
From songs

Hate

“The brain speculates but the heart knows.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Autobiography

Heart

“The first consideration for all, throughout life, is the earning of a living.”

Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693) Japanese writer

Book I, ch. 1.
The Japanese Family Storehouse (1688)

Life

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