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Morrissey
101 quotes
“(About Pop Idols) Obviously, it's designed by record company executives who want a cheap success, and they don't want to give money to anybody and they don't want to give contracts, so they've created this world of very bubbly teenagers who want to be "idols" and they think all they have to do is mime quite well and they've made it. … But it's not the problem of the kids, it's the problem of the record companies, because it's just an inexpensive way for them to have so-called, I won't say "artists", but erm...You're nodding, you know what I mean.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a radio interview with Janice Long (2002)
“It (synthesizers and drum machines) has contributed greatly (to an 'antiseptic' sound). And the fact is, when I look back on the last few years I really can't remember that much of the music, such is its lasting effect. I think it's instantly forgettable and it horrifies me in many respects. It's so sterile and non-human. I don't understand why people play non-human music. It really mystifies me when we're human beings. It's strange. I hate it.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a radio interview with David Jensen in 1983
“Well, the problem I've had with all the interviews I've had in America - I had meetings with about nine labels - and they all say to me "Will your new songs fit in with what is popular and what is in the chart?" And I say "Good God, I hope not!”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a radio interview with Janice Long (2002)
“I think that when you make a record, an album, it has to be a discovery for the person listening to it, so you don't want to pat everything out and say "this was that, this is definite, that's how it happened and that's what you should feel and that's what you should like or dislike". It's personal discovery.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Russell Brand in 2009
“Well, I think the way you feel as a teenager stays with you, forever. I really believe that. And we try to change and we hope that we change, but we don't really in big ways, in serious ways. I think the personality is formed at that time, for the good and for the bad. … We all want to grow up and move on and appear to be different to people. And we want people to see us in a different way. But, I don't know, I think the personality is very, very strongly cemented, and we just bear whatever shortcomings we have and learn to live with it.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a radio interview by Jed the fish (1997)
“MS: Have you ever turned to religion? M: At no time. I am a seriously lapsed Catholic. It was at the usual time, 10, 11, 12, after being forced to go to church and never understanding why and never enjoying it, seeing so many negative things, and realising it somehow wasn't for me. I can only have faith in things I see. I could never be converted to Buddhism.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From The soft touch", interview by Mat Snow, Q (December 1989)
“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 (born 1959) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "The cradle snatchers", article by Frank Worrall, Melody Maker (3 September 1983)
“The reports of my death have been greatly understated.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Message from Morrissey," True To You (31 January 2013). Twist on a quote by Mark Twain.
“If I die, then I die. And if I don’t, then I don’t. Right now I feel good. I am aware that in some of my recent photos I look somewhat unhealthy, but that’s what illness can do. I’m not going to worry about that, I’ll rest when I’m dead.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from an interview for El Mundo (2014), regarding the announcement of Morrissey's cancer diagnosis
“The modern Loony Left seem to forget that Hitler was Left wing!”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from an interview to John Riggers (www.morrisseycentral.com) — April 16, 2018
“That’s the key to modern Britain … only the mentally castrated are eligible for praise and awards. It’s against the law to be intelligent! The dumb have inherited the earth. Because of this, British arts are controlled by completely limited possibilities, and the same faces appear everywhere.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CULTURE Pop Icon Morrissey Says Diversity is Not a Strength, June 24 2019
“I didn’t vote in the referendum [Brexit] although I can see how there is absolutely nothing attractive about the EU. My view has always been that the result of the referendum must be carried through. If the vote had been remain there would be absolutely no question that we would remain. In the interest of true democracy, you cannot argue against the wish of the people. Without the people, nobody in high office gets paid.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: CULTURE Pop Icon Morrissey Says Diversity is Not a Strength, June 24 2019
“It's hard to be a man. It's made to be hard and I don't know why. I think it's easier to be a woman. The women's movement has been so successful; the men's movement has never been accepted. I think it's not wanted. I think the expectation that men be stoic and strong is so enormous that finally they decide that this is the attractive way to be. There's more to life than being macho - such an ugly word - which is something that I realized at the age of one.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Homme alone" by David Keeps, Details (December 1992)
“Interviewer: do you think people are innately racist? Morrissey: Yes. I don't want to sound horrible or pessimistic but I don't really think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. I don't really think they ever will. The French will never like English. The English will never like the French. That tunnel will collapse.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Q Magazine, 1992.
“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 (born 1959) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "I've always felt like an exile" by Andrew Billen in The Times (30th May 2006)
“TF: At which point did you stop being celibate, why and who with? M: I don't see how anyone would benefit from seeing that kind of information in print. Least of all me.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "The Face Q&A", The Face (November 1999).
“M: I don't have relationships at all. It's out of the question. NK: Why? M: Partly because I was always attracted to men or women who were never attracted to me. And I was never attracted to women or men who were attracted to me. So that's the problem. I've never met the right person.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "The deep end", interview by Nick Kent, The Face (March 1990).
“(Eating meat) is really on the same moral level as child abuse. It’s the same thing. Animals are like children, they look to us for protection. We should protect them. I really feel quite smug about mad cow disease and foot and mouth and so forth, and I just think ‘Well, what do you expect? People have been saying it for years.'”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the TV documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey (2003)
“I think animals need all the help they can get, because they have none. They have no rights. They have no protection. And so I think animals need help. And I think animals look to humans for protection, and of course humans lead them into slaughterhouses, which to me is just like an image of leading children into a slaughterhouse. There’s no difference. That level of trust and… But it’s a very cruel world.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a Norwegian TV interview (2002)
“I recall her [Theresa May] speech on Eid al-Adhar, and how she referred to it as a ‘joyous celebration’ … as millions of animals had their throats slit to mark the occasion.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 35 of Morrissey’s most controversial quotes, iNews (April 17, 2018)
“If you have any concern for animal welfare, for example, you cannot possibly vote for either Conservatives or Labour, because both parties support halal slaughter, which, as we all know, is evil. Furthermore, halal slaughter requires certification that can only be given by supporters of ISIS, and yet in England we have halal meat served in hospitals and schools!”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 35 of Morrissey’s most controversial quotes, iNews (April 17, 2018)
“Because he (Elton John) is pushing his face in all the time, and telling us about his private life. Nobody's interested, he's incredibly rich, he should just go away, and he's just hoisting his problems onto everybody and working them out publicly and...I've said enough.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an radio interview with Janice Long (2002)
“Strangely, I liked them (the Sex Pistols) until they made records. I saw them quite a few times before they actually made records. And when they did, it just became... suddenly punk had this enormous scope and was everywhere. Obviously it lost everything. And looking back, I don't really have that much affection for the whole punk thing. It really didn't mean so much to me at all. But of course, I would rather it have been there than not.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a radio interview with David Jensen (1983)
“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 (born 1959) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "Home thoughts from abroad", article by Frank Owen, Melody Maker (27 Sep 1986)
“I don't recognise such terms as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and I think it's important that there's someone in pop music who's like that. These words do a great deal of damage, they confuse people and they make people feel unhappy, so I want to do away with them."{{Cite book”
“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 (born 1959) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Interview, June 24 2019, morrisseycentral.com
“Jools Holland: "Knock Knock!" Morrissey: "I'm not in!" Jools: "Oh, come on." Morrissey: "I refuse to open the door.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Later With Jools Holland (21 May 2004)
“DK: Have you ever been to a rave? M: Rave is the refuge for the mentally deficient. It's made by dull people for dull people.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Homme alone 2" by David Keeps, Details (December 1992)
“CH: Have you told many fibs today? M: I lie a lot - it's really useful - but everything I've said today has been the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me... er... Trevor...”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by Chris Heath, Star Hits (1987)
“Cleavage Sister: "What do you feel about erotic art?" Morrissey:"I don't know much about rotting art?" Cleavage Sister: "What about erotic music?" Morrissey:"I know a great deal about rotting music.”
“I can't believe I'm 29. Where did the years go? Why did the years go?”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Who Put The 'M' In Manchester? (2004)
“It's the nicest birthday I've ever had. You've made a happy man very old.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Who Put The 'M' In Manchester? (2004)
“I find Christmas very difficult”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Morrissey's reply to a fan's question "What do you think of Christmas?" at Earl's Court 18th December 2004
“I'll try to sing as fast as I can, I know you all can't wait to see U2.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Glastonbury Festival, 2011
“Hello you little charmers... We're The Smiths...”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Smiths, live at the Hacienda (1983)
“I have so much pride and love for the songs of The Smiths. However, I must ask you, if you come across any Smiths CDs, don't buy them, because all the money goes to that wretched drummer.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Live at Edinburgh, (2008)
“I suppose you have work tomorrow? That's quite sad, really.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: live in Claremont, California (1997)
“I can smell burning flesh … and I hope to God it's human.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: … midway through his performance, he was overcome with fumes from the backstage barbecue." - Tim Jonze Guardian. Live at Coachella festival, California (2009)
“Noel Gallagher: "I used to piss myself laughing out loud on a bus going into town to buy the NME when he was on the cover and there was an interview. Laugh out loud, fucking side-splitting. His lyrics are incredible. I've seen him live a few times. He's one of the best. I've seen him live recently, last year in Australia, and he's still one of the best.”
“Johnny Marr: "The truth of it is, I absolutely encouraged and backed up everything that Morrissey did and was really, really happy to do so. All his words, everything he said in the press. When we cancelled gigs, I backed him up to the hilt.”
“Jeremy Vine: "He took all the things that pop music's about, which is being sun-tanned and handsome and getting all the girls and he reversed them.”
“David Cameron: "I'm sure that when Morrissey finds that he's getting an endorsement from the leader of the Conservative Party, he will think "heaven know's I'm miserable now". I'm a big fan, I'm afraid. Sorry about that.”
“M: If you cannot impress people simply by being part of the great fat human race, then you really do have to develop other skills. And if you don't impress people by the way you look, then you really do have to develop other skills. And if you are now going to ask is everything I did just a way to gain some form of attention, well that's not entirely true. It is in a small way, but that's in the very nature of being alive. PM: Wanting to be loved? M: To be seen, above all else. I wanted to be noticed, and the way I lived and do live has a desperate neurosis about it because of that. All humans need a degree of attention. Some people get it at the right time, when they are 13 or 14, people get loved at the right stages. If this doesn't happen, if the love isn't there, you can quite easily just fade away. … In a sense I always felt that being troubled as a teenager was par for the course. I wasn't sure that I was dramatically unique. I knew other people who were at the time desperate and suicidal. They despised life and detested all other living people. In a way that made me feel a little bit secure. Because I thought, well, maybe I'm not so intense after all. Of course, I was. I despised practically everything about human life, which does limit one's weekend activities”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "Wilde child", interview by Paul Morley, Blitz (April 1988).
“When The Smiths began it was very important that I wouldn't be that horrible, stupid, sloppy Steven. He would have to be locked in a box and put on top of the wardrobe. l needed to feel differently and rather than adopt some glamorous pop star name, I eradicated Steven which seemed to make perfect sense. Suddenly I was a totally different person. Now when I meet pre-Smith people who call me Steven, I sit there and wonder who they're talking about. I always despised the name Steven, though being spelt with a 'v' rather than a 'ph' made life slightly more tolerable. But it was very important that Steven be drowned nonetheless.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from an interview by Elissa Van Poznak in The Face (1984)
“I listen to the radio now that we seem to be on it quite a lot, but before that, I didn't really listen a great deal. I gave up for a while. But other groups... without really trying to sound terribly down on modern music, much of it really doesn't affect me a great deal. It seems tragically tidy, and everybody has their little safety nets and their little life rafts, and once people seem to get a hit they seem to just dilute the formula constantly and there's no risk involved, and it's really so desperately tidy, that... I want to change things. But I don't want to imply that The Smiths are a high-risk situation anyway, of course they're not. They're immediately listenable. But it just needs somebody with some heart and some brain. I think popular music needs brains at the moment.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a radio interview with David Jensen in 1983
“I'm bereft of spiritual solutions. I do believe that there has to be a better world, but that's rather simple. I'm quite obsessed with death. I've gone through periods of intense envy for people who've died. Yes, I have a dramatic unswayable unavoidable obsession with death. I can remember being obsessed with it from the age of eight and I often wondered whether it was quite a natural inbuilt emotion for people who're destined to take their own lives, that they recognise it and begin to study it. If there was a magical beautiful pill that one could take that would retire you from this world, I think I would take it and I suppose that's the extremity of the obsessiveness.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Stop me if you've heard this one before", interview by Len Brown in NME (20 February 1988)
“I could never really make the connection between Christian and Catholic. I always imagined that Christ would look down upon the Catholic church and totally disassociate himself from it. I went to severe schools, working class schools, where they would almost chop your fingers off for your own good, and if you missed church on Sunday and went to school on a Monday and they quizzed you on it, you'd be sent to the gallows. It was like 'Brush you teeth NOW or you will DIE IN HELL and you will ROT and all these SNAKES will EAT you'. And I remember all these religious figures, statues, which used to petrify every living child. All these snakes trodden underfoot and blood everywhere. I thought it was so morbid. I mean the very idea of just going to church anyway is really quite absurd. I always felt that it was really like the police, certainly in this country at any rate, just there to keep the working classes humble and in their place. Because of course nobody else but the working class pays any attention to it. I really feel quite sick when I see the Pope giving long, overblown, inflated lectures on nuclear weapons and then having tea with Margaret Thatcher. To me it's total hypocrisy. And when I hear the Pope completely condemning working class women for having abortions and condemning nobody else... to me the whole thing is entirely class ridden, it's just really to keep the working classes in perpetual fear and feeling total guilt.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "All men have secrets and these are Morrissey’s", interview by Neil McCormick,Hot Press (4 May 1984)
“Actually I despise royalty. I always have done. It's fairy story nonsense. The very idea of their existence in these days when people are dying daily because they don't have enough money to operate one's radiator in the house, to me is immoral. As far as I can see, money spent on royalty is money burnt. I've never met anyone who supports royalty, and believe me I've searched. Okay, so there's some deaf and elderly pensioner in Hartlepool who has pictures of Prince Edward pinned on the toilet seat, but I know streams of people who can't wait to get rid of them. It's a false devotion anyway. I think it's fascist and very, very cruel. To me there's something dramatically ugly about a person who can wear a dress for £6,000 when at the same time there are people who can't afford to eat. When she puts on that dress for £6,000 the statement she is making to the nation is: "I am the fantastically gifted royalty, and you are the snivelling peasants." The very idea that people would be interested in the facts about this dress is massively insulting to the human race.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "This Charming Man", interview by Simon Garfield, Timeout March 1985
“TW: I must ask you, what right does the fact that you are a popular and successful popstar give you to comment on political and… M: Well, I feel that, if popular singers don’t say these things, who does? We can’t have any faith in playwrights any more, we can’t have any faith in filmstars, young people don’t care about those things, they’re dying arts. And if you say, what ‘right’ do you have, the implication there to me is that popular music is quite a low art, it should be hidden, it can be there but let’s not say anything terribly important, let’s just make disco records or whatever. So I really feel that we do have an obligation and I know that people respect it and they want it and it’s working to great effect.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Granada Reports", interview by Tony Wilson, Granada TV February 1985
“I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The "dazzling royals" have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness. As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters. Meanwhile the British media present 24-hour coverage of the "dazzling royals", laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole. In 2012, the British public is evidently assumed to be undersized pigmies, scarcely able to formulate thought. As I recently drove through Greece I noticed repeated graffiti seemingly everywhere on every available wall. In large blue letters it said WAKE UP WAKE UP. It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life. WAKE UP WAKE UP.”
Morrissey (born 1959) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from a statement on the website 'True To You' 2012