Billy Corgan Quotes (42 Quotes)


    What has gone on in my childhood, and the personal problems that we've had in the band, have given a lot of people hope. (It shows) if you keep your nose pointed straight you can actually get somewhere -- to a happy place.

    As a citizen of the great city of Chicago, I find it impossible to root against the White Sox. The White Sox organization has been much more consistent, in my lifetime at least, at putting a winning ballclub on the field.

    I'm sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.

    It's my role as an artist to basically destroy the obvious and recreate the obvious, to put it back together into a form that maybe you wouldn't have considered, ... I'm not into making things unimaginable.

    Your basic person wants to talk about material culture, internet culture. I think about God, cats, nature.


    I'm viewed as this weird, crippled character. But you got to take your lumps.

    You will never see the four original Pumpkins on stage ever again, unless it's a Hall of Fame thing. But you would never see a tour. There's so much damage, there's no way.

    I don't mean this in any sort of trite way, ... but the music has really been the thing that has healed us over and over again. It is the thing that has held us together and taught us about each other.

    I didn't find Jesus. He's been there the whole time.

    I believe that if the Tribune company ever tries to close down Wrigley Field that you will have a protest from every corner of the globe.

    Are you all ready to have a rockin' mashed potato time

    For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.

    The Pumpkins love rock-and-roll, we absolutely love it, but we also think it's a flatulent, ego-serving kiddie playground. You can have your cake and eat it too.

    I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.


    I didn't grow up with my mother, and so losing her for real was like, some sort of latent childhood, some sort of unresolved issue. When she left for real, it was sort of like, I was done.

    There's a difference between being a poseur and being someone who's so emotionally challenged they're kind of just doing their best to show you what they've got.

    I don't have to play by these rules or do these things... I can actually have my own kind of version.

    I've always been spiritual but I've never had a proper context, and it took me awhile to find the proper context. It's hard to realize you can have any kind of relationship with God you want... and so I now have a punk rock relationship with God.

    A lot of great music got easily dismissed because the baby boomers threw their weight around and we had to listen to Motown 'til our ears bled,

    Saturn Return is just the return of your planets to their original position.

    I was brought up Roman Catholic. I'm not even baptized.

    James, that's a bad situation. I'm not saying it's not repairable, but it's pretty far. When you go from being in one of the best bands in the world to some cover band... as far as I'm concerned, he was playing down at the pub.

    The deeper I get into my life as a musician, I'm discovering that it becomes less and less about other people, and more about what I want to do. And that's a good place to be.

    You can't be greater than Elvis, change things as much as the Beatles, or be as original as Led Zeppelin. All you can do is rip them off.

    I met with a lot of resistance when I wanted our newest album to be a double CD. Many people thought I was going to ruin the band by doing it.

    Well, what we usually do is in every city we got to, we hire a fifteen-year-old boy and we turn it up until he starts to make a funny face, then we turn it up about ten notches higher than that.

    I lay a lot of blame at the feet of Dusty Baker for not being more strict about fundamentals, which I think would give the team a stronger day-to-day identity.

    My pat line about the Cubs and payroll is that the amount of merchandise the Cubs would sell off a world series championship would more than cover for a big payroll.

    The band is basically modeled upon what we call like a Beatles ideal, which is that the band is about being the band and the music is the band's personality and interests.

    In the beginning, though, I have to admit that I did have a chip on my shoulder. I did want to prove everyone wrong. But after I went through the process and came out the other side, it wasn't about anyone else.

    Say you write a song about a chandelier, and the chandelier gives off light. And the light is the color red and red reminds you of the color your not supposed to wear around a bull. So you name the song Cow.

    My version, of course, is not this flag-waving, let's all get on the Jesus train and ride out of hell. I'm not that kind of guy. It's an embrace that life is good, worth living and yeah, it's not easy, but there are more pluses than minuses.

    For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done alright.

    I'm definitely responsible for coming in with some basic chord changes, or ideas. Everybody in the band looks to me to come up with the basic seed, so it's not very productive to come in with nothing.

    If I have resistance to something, it means there's something wrong. The resistance to me is a sign of fear.

    Great music completely obliterates any conceptions of genre.

    I walked away from going to church when I was 8. I didn't set foot in another church until I was 28.

    I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan.

    According to reports from Australia, one fan shouted from the stage play some Pumpkins ... Can I live my life for today.

    I was raised a Christian, but I wouldn't call myself a Christian now. I think when I was younger it was easier to focus on the negative, nihilist vision... this is sort of picking up on the other half of the body, which is God and white light.

    I feel like I'm always fighting not to repeat myself.


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