Morrissey

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Morrissey (born May 22, 1959) English singer and songwriter former frontman of The Smiths; born Steven Patrick Morrissey.

Contents 1 Sourced 1.1 from Songs 1.2 In Interviews etc. 2 Attributed

Sourced

from Songs

• And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.
  And if a ten ton truck kills the both of us, to die by your side,
  Well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine.
  • from the song "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"

• 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.
  • from the song "Irish Blood, English Heart"

• I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving,
  England is mine and it owes me a living
  • from the song "Still Ill"

• You shut your mouth,
  How can you say I go about things the wrong way?
  I am human and I need to be loved
  Just like everybody else does
  • from the song "How Soon Is Now?"

• Hand in glove, the good people laugh, yes we may be hidden by rags,
  But we've something they'll never have
  • from the song "Hand In Glove"

• There's more to life than books you know, but not much more
  • from the song "Handsome Devil"- actually lifted from Kurt Vonnegut

• Oh, the alcoholic afternoons when we sat in your room
  • From the song "These Things Take Time"

• I'm here with the cause, I'm holding the torch
  In the corner of your room- can you hear me?
  And when you're dancing and laughing, and finally living,
  Hear my voice in your head and think of me kindly.
  • From the song "Rubber Ring"

• Most people keep their brains between their legs
  • From the song "Such a Little Thing Makes Such a Big Difference"

• But sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled making Christmas cards with the mentally ill.
  I want to live and I want to love.
  I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of.
  • From the song "Frankly Mr. Shankly"

• And when I'm lying in my bed, I think about life and I think about death.
  And neither one particularly appeals to me.
  • From the song "Nowhere Fast"

• Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body?
  I dunno...
  • From the song "Still Ill"

• Now I know how Joan of Arc felt,
  As the flames rose to her Roman nose
  And her Walkman started to melt...
  • From the song "Bigmouth Strikes Again"

• As Anthony said to Cleopatra as he opened a crate of ale:
  "Oh, I say, some girls are bigger than others,
  Some girls' mothers are bigger than other girls' mothers.
  • From the song "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others"

In Interviews etc.

• 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.
  • From a Norwegian TV Interview (2002)

• Eating meat is on the same moral level as child abuse. It’s the same thing. Animals are like children, they look at us for protection and we should protect them. I really feel quite smug about mad-cow-disease and foot-and-mouth and so forth, and I just think ‘What do you expect? People have been saying it for years.’ It’s all just abuse and it’s all human evil.
  • From the TV- documentation The Importance of Being Morrissey (2001)

Attributed

• Most of the faces I see on the covers of American music magazines are just dreadful— people with nothing to offer the world at all.

• The tabloids hound me. What makes me more dangerous to them than anybody else is the fact that I lead something of a religious lifestyle. I despise drugs and cigarettes, I'm celibate and I live a very serene lifestyle.

• I think I'm a realist. Which people who don't like me consider to be pessimism. It isn't pessimism at all. If I was a pessimist I wouldn't get up, I wouldn't shave, I wouldn't watch Batman at 7:30 a.m. Pessimists just don't do that sort of thing.

• I normally live in Los Angeles, if you can call it normal living.

• That's why I do this music business thing, it's communication with people without having the extreme inconvenience of actually phoning anybody up.

• I do think it's actually possible to go through life and never fall in love or find someone who loves you.

• 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.

• I once bought a Manchester United hat, which I think was 12 shillings, and somebody ran up behind me and pulled it off and just ran ahead. I thought, 'It's a very cruel world, I'm not prepared for this'. And I decided to get my revenge on society.

• 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.

• 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.

• I think what we're lacking is Direct Action whether we're discussing Tiffany or nuclear waste. Direct Action is the only thing that can save the world, there's no point in sitting cross-legged round a nicely polished table... No, I wasn't referring to us I was referring to political groups, nurses' unions and so forth. I think a few bricks need to be thrown through a few specific windows... like Katie Boyle's.

• 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.

• (On David Bowie) (He is) not the person he was. He is no longer David Bowie at all. Now he gives people what he thinks will make them happy, and they're yawning their heads off. And by doing that, he is not relevant. He was only relevant by accident.

• (On Band Aid) The whole implication was to save these people in Ethiopia, but who were they asking to save them? Some 13-year-old girl in Wigan! People like Thatcher and the royals could solve the Ethiopian problem within ten seconds. But Band Aid shied away from saying that — for heaven's sake, it was almost directly aimed at unemployed people.

• I can get incredibly erotic about blotting paper.

• (On Freud) He just made people feel so neurotic about their lives. I mean, if you dreamt about a lampshade, it meant you wanted to be whipped by the local vicar or something.

• Rave is the refuge for the mentally deficient. It's made by dull people for dull people.

• I lie a lot - it's really useful...

• I'm not very good at being dull.

• (On Craig Gannon suing him) My opinion is that Craig Gannon didn't really win because... he's still Craig Gannon.

• (When asked who does his laundry) Me, I'm afraid. Every Friday night you'll find me leaning over the bathtub, immersed in Persil... It's quite passionately romantic leaning over the bath, scrubbing one's shirts.

• That was the problem with the 'celibate' word because they don't consider for a moment that you'd rather not be, but you just are. I was never a sexual person.

• Not everybody is absolutely stupid. Why on earth would I be racist, what would I be trying to achieve?

• The Cure, a new dimension to the word 'crap'.

• I believe in [the idea of resiting to lying to make something more interesting] but I've never found it necessary. But I'll certainly consider it for the future.

• I've always thought my genitals were the result of some crude practical joke.

• I hate men who only see women in a sexual way - to me that's criminal and I want to change that.

• I believe that everything went downhill from the moment the McDonalds chain was given license to invade England — don't laugh, I'm serious. To me it was like the outbreak of war and I can't understand why English troops weren't retaliating. The Americanisation of England is such a terminal illness — I think England should be English, and Americans should go home and spoil their own country.

• I don't want to sound horrible or pessimistic, but I really don't think, for instance, black people and white people will ever really get on or like each other. The French will never like the English. The English will never like the French. The tunnel will collapse.

• Considering the obsession that the British media have with politics and politicians, it's surprising how catastrophic British politicians are. The British media still don't have the nerve to admit to themselves how useless Tony Blair is. Useless for Britain, useless for Europe. Useless, useless, useless. I think it's sad that England can't produce one single inspiring politician.

• (When asked: Are you currently feeling devious, truculent, or unreliable?, referred to what judge John Weeks called Morrissey) The judge who said those words only did so because they described exactly what I am not, nor have ever been. He would be delighted that you remember his quote. This judge, John Weeks, had his eye on the press when he made that comment. Some judges are a bit like ex-drummers, they'll do anything for a bit of press attention. I was delighted when Michael Stipe called him a "fuckhead" in Q magazine. It was the first time anyone had ever stood up for me in the press on this matter.

• (On the 1996 court case over royalties) It was an extraordinary miscarriage of justice. The whole point of this court case was to say Mr. Joyce is a poor shambolic character in desperate need of money who has been treated abysmally by Morrissey and Marr - when the fact was he had been treated with absolute generosity, considering the minor role that he played. He played his instrument and went home. He was always in search of more shags. Now Johnny Marr and myself, throughout the history of The Smiths, never slept with anybody, and took The Smiths very seriously. We stayed up till the small hours perfecting and shaping everything. Joyce was the exact opposite - he had no sense of duty. So when this person therefore, 10 years after the group has ended, starts demanding £1m...

• (On mobile phones) I hate the way they ring, and when I see people use them in public I feel repulsed by that. I find it such an invasion. And also, I don't want to be tracked down and almost monitored every second of the day.

• Robert Smith is a whingebag.

• Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, I think they're all vile in the extreme.

• When I wrote an ineffectual line such as 'I was looking for a job/ And then I found a job/And Heaven knows I'm miserable now', that outraged people (which pleased me).

• If I had stood in the middle of a Manchester housing estate and announced, 'I'm celibate', I probably would have been shot.

• Things seem so wonderful from a distance, but when you go to Rome, you're bored and you want to come straight back home to Scunthorpe.

• Madonna reinforces everything absurd and offensive. Desperate womanhood. She is closer to organized prostitution than anything else.

• The reason I believe that The Royal Family is evil is because they enjoy fox hunting. These are despicable people. And Charles has no intelligence whatsoever.

• Elton John is pushing his face in all the time and telling us about his private life. Nobody's interested, he's incredibly rich and he's just hoisting his problems on to everybody and working them out publicly. He should just go away.

• 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.

• I cannot understand having children. Even if the opportunity arose, I would definitely turn it down. No, I don't blame anyone for bringing me into the world, but I do feel that life is excessively overrated.

• I have to say, and this sounds rehearsed, I've always felt closer to transexuality than anything else.

• The lyrics I write are specifically genderless. I don't want to leave anybody out. Handsome is a word that people think is applied to males...but I know lots of handsome women. After all, there is such a thing as a pretty male.

• I detest Stevie Wonder.

• Bring me the head of Elton John.

• I think Diana Ross is awful.

• Long hair is an unpardonable offense which should be punishable by death.

• (On rap music) I really do think it's a great musical stench. I find it very offensive, artless and styleless. To me it's very reminiscent of thuggery, pop thuggery. I don't want to hear it at all.

• For me Prince conveys nothing. The fact that he's successful in America is interesting simply because he's mildly fey and that hasn't happened before there. Boy George, again I think he really doesn't say anything either.

• Jools Holland: "Knock Knock!" Morrissey: "I'm not in!" Jools: "Oh, come on." Morrissey: "I refuse to open the door."

• (On the 1996 trial over royalties which was won by Mike Joyce) It was a terrible miscarriage of justice. So it's been really shocking. I wish the very, very worst for (Mike) Joyce, for the rest of his life.

• I think Band Aid was diabolical. I think Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Many people find that very unsettling, but I'll say it as loud as anyone wants me to. In the first instance the record itself was absolutely tuneless. One can have great concern for the people of Ethiopia, but it's another thing to inflict daily torture on the people of England. It was an awful record considering the mass of talent involved. And it wasn't done shyly - it was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music.

• Oasis are very tame to me. At a time when they have the spotlight of the world on them, they should have made the most revolutionary, creative record and instead it's practically awful. For a song which is trying so hard to create hooks, it doesn't really have any. God bless Noel; I'm sure he'll always have a spot on 'Bob's Full House', but I search for something with more bite and rage.

• If Prince came from Wigan he would have been slaughtered by now.

• With people in the world such as Jamie Oliver and Clarissa Dickson Wright there isn't much hope for animals. I support the efforts of the Animal Rights Militia in England and I understand why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence - it is because they deal in violence themselves and it's the only language they understand - the same principals that apply to war. You reach a point where you cannot reason with people. This is why the Animal Rights Militia and the Hunt Saboteurs exist. They are usually very intelligent people who are forced to act because the law is shameful or amoral.

• In England, animals are hunted to the point of extinction, and then a great effort is made to save and reintroduce animals, and once they are re-established, they are then hunted back to the point of extinction. Everybody needs to hate something, it seems.

• I don't consider myself to be political, even though to sing or to write are political acts, of sorts. The proof of your political thinking is usually in your conduct. I find myself opposing barbarism, that's all. People like Blair and Bush have proved that in order to succeed in politics you must be cruel and morally bankrupt. I see no difference between Blair or Bush and Saddam Hussein - all egotistical dictators. Perhaps the only difference is that Blair and Bush do it with a smile. Murder and smile .... as Shakespeare said. Good people do not succeed in politics - it's impossible. I also think that most people have lost faith and trust in politics, and this can only be because most political leaders prove themselves to be contemptuous of the people who elect them. When Bush decided that he would have a state visit to England, Blair described the anti-Bush protestors as "these people" - even though "these people" were in fact the ordinary people of England who had probably voted Blair into government. But, Blair was prepared to attack his own people in order to avoid upsetting Bush. This is what happens in non-democratic countries.

• With all my heart I urge people to vote against George Bush. Jon Stewart would be ideal, but John Kerry is the logical and sane move. It does not need to be said yet again, but Bush has single-handedly turned the United States into the most neurotic and terror-obsessed country on the planet. For non-Americans, the United States is suddenly not a very nice place to visit because US immigration officers — under the rules of Bush — now conduct themselves with all the charm and unanswerable indignation of Hitler’s SS. Please bring sanity and intelligence back to the United States. Don’t forget to vote. Vote for John Kerry and get rid of George Bush!

• One of my physical encounters was with a man. That was 10 years ago. It was just a very brief, absurd and amusing moment. It wasn't love. I have never experienced that.

• (when asked if he had slept with women) Yes. I feel completely open. If I met somebody tomorrow, male or female, and they loved me and I loved them, I would openly proclaim that I loved them, regardless of what they were. I think people should be loved whatever their gender, whatever their age. I am open to everything.

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