Billie joe armstrong quotes

Rock 'n' roll can be fun and dangerous at the same time.

Pretty and demented at the same time, like me.

I don't want to limit myself musically. It would be really limiting if we'd neglect something we really want to do, like explore other styles of music.

Never run in the rain with your socks on.

Dont test me, Second guess me, Protest me, You will DISAPEAR! (East Jesus of Nowhere)

In every song I write, whether it's a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing that I find is feeling lost and trying to find your way.

It's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done.

I got body lice in Germany! I'd tell you they were crabs, but I wasn't getting laid.

I don't like LA. The majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn't it sick?

I approach playing acoustic guitar more of as a percussive instrument. It's fragile. I don't have a lot of finesse when it comes to my guitar playing.

Always move forward, going straight will get you nowhere.

No matter what, if you're a parent, you have to make sacrifices.

Punk rock isn't supposed to be for everyone. There is that sort of private club mentality, which is necessary. It keeps things from getting watered down and boring.

I was on drugs when I wrote some of my songs. It was a rough time for me, but I'm lucky enough to be one of the people who learned from that experience and moved on, where other people just got addicted and more addicted and more addicted until it killed them.

The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.

A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It's below the radar. The beauty of it is that you're not supposed to always know. It's subterranean.

I never thought being obnoxious would get me where I am today.

It's okay to grow up, it's just slowing down that's the scary part. Running out of time. It's okay to grow up, but it doesn't mean you have to become like your parents.

The first time I ever saw him play, Tre Cool was wearing a tutu and an old-womans swimming cap.

Music - that's been my education. There's not a day that goes by that I take it for granted.

What is going on in America is extreme. The youth cult, they worship youth so much it's almost paranoid. And LA is the Mecca of it all; they're taking it to the hilt.

With the video for Boulevard of Broken Dreams we were going for something a bit like Ladykillers, you know? Pretty and demented at the same time...like me!

I think it's your own choice if you turn from an angry young man to a bitter, old bastard.

A lot of people, when they talk to me, I can't wait for them to shut up. Like, shut up. you're a moron. I have nothing to say, you know?

I'm a dirt bag rock and roller. I want to represent that before anything else

We never fit in completely to [the punk] scene because we were writing love songs that were heartfelt and endearing. Some of the punks didn't know what to make of us, but I finally realized that was what made us punk. We sang what we meant, from the heart, and didn't worry about what anyone was going to think.

There's an honesty in our family - my kids and I are able to talk about things without me putting the fear of God into them.

I'm an idiot anyway, but sometimes you feel like an idiot times ten when you're stoned.

Do you have a problem? I have a gun. I'll shoot you. No problem.

I definitely related a lot to Perry [from That's Ordinary World movie]. I liked how he put family first. I identified with the exhaustion and klutziness that comes with being a parent, and how he's just a rock-and-roller at heart. For me, it was fun to kind of imagine whether or not this could've been the path I went on, or not.

One thing I want to teach my son is sensitivity to other people. I want to teach him not to be this macho freak.

The first time that you escape from home or the small town that you live in - there's a reason a small town is called a small town: It's because not many people want to live there.

Minority is about being an individual. It's like you have to sift through the darkness to find your place and be that individual you want to be your entire life.

Well, you know, I look at myself in the morning and yes, yeah I-I am a God.

Coffee is the absolute most dependably ordinary thing I could have every single day.

There are many things in life that you feel you need such as television, magazines, teachers telling that you have to make money and be successful, but if you have some kind of hope, something to hold onto, then all this will no longer be important. If you can make your next day better than the previous one, then you will see what it really means something to you and not everything that people think you need for your life.

I love my friends and family, but playing, that's my DNA.

I can't sleep very well at night. It takes me a while to get to sleep. I could just be nocturnal. I have my nighttime witching hour where I hang out, listen to records or watch TV.

I'm a father. It isn't just my life any more. I don't want my kid finding bottles in the house or seeing his father completely smashed.

Slipknot sounds like Tre choking on a hairball.

I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman.

There are a lot of bands who claim to be punk and they only play the music, they have no clue what it's all about. It's a lifestyle. It's not about popularity and all that crap.

She smashes her knuckles into winter As autumn's wind fades into black She is the saint of all the sinners, the one whose fallen through the cracks... (iViva la Gloria!)

When all else fails...be a rockstar

I wrote a song called "Green Day" because I was smoking a lot of dope.

Just seeing the things on TV and the things in front of you, the amount of information coming in, and the lack of information not coming in, how could you not help but write songs about it.

Attack your instruments. Don't let them attack you.

Some times I need to apologize, sometimes I need to admit that I ain't right, sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut, or only say hello, sometimes I still feel I'm walking alone.

The thing about punk is that there are purists. Once you start going outside of that, they don't think what you're doing is punk rock.

They have bad taste. I am not a good-looking guy.

It's not necessarily getting older or the change that comes with it, I think it's more about the memories that you have. Where you can look at your life in these eras.

I just want to write good songs that people love, which is a tough thing to do.

The bigger the risks, the better off you are. Otherwise you're just boring.

I'm not as depressed as I used to be. The Prozac's working!

Music to me is the air I breathe it's the blood that pumps through my veins that keeps me alive

A man once asked me, what's punk? I kicked over a trash can and said that's punk. He kicked over a trash can and then asked me again, Is that punk? I replied no. That's just trendy.

The things that people do now in sports, you can't even believe. These are complete total athletes. To see what human beings can do in the highest level is amazing.

Songs are like a form of chaos that you can control. It's a form of intelligence that maybe you only understand and you hope that someone else can understand. And you can be anyone you want: you can be as grandiose as you want or you can be as down in the gutter as you want. It's just sort of whatever emotional freeway you're on at the time.

We're gonna get high, high, high, when we're low. The fires burn from better days. She scream why, oh why? I said I don't know!

Just because you're in the missionary position don't make you no missionary.

We're not a political band. We don't want to tell people what to do or what to think. We just want to tell them to think.

Time passes by like lightning. Before you know it you're struck down.

If me and Mike Dirnt are in the same room, it's not quite right if he's not on stage with me.

Eventually, if something pops up, that's cool, but I still wanna continue the process of learning how to be a good actor.

I just wanted to get the hell out of my town. I wanted to leave with reckless abandon. I didn't care where I ended up, as long as I saw as much as humanly possible.

Punk is always something that's going to be with us and to try and explain that would be stupid at this point.

Life isn't pretty but it sure is beautiful.

If Britney Spears would paint her ass green, I'm sure you would spot green asses all over L.A., as soon as the word was out.

Just about 99% of the population masturbates while the other 1% lie about it.

‎The day you become old is the day you're not looking for new experiences anymore.

Controversy What controversy This is reality. What I see is that no matter if you're a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you stand on, this is the reality of the situation - that people's families and their young kids are being affected.

I think we have the worst name in rock, I really do. It's the worst name in the world

The thing is, my education was music. I knew I'd be playing music no matter what. That's all I thought about, I was obsessed with it. I'm still obsessed with it. It gets the best of me sometimes.

Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality.

I don't feel any shame I won't apologize if there ain't nowhere you can go running away from pain when you've been victimized tales from another broken home.

No one's really happy anyway, it's not human.

Thats what Green Day is-there are no rules.

School is practice for future life, practice makes perfect and nobody's perfect, so why practice?

You can't change the wind but you can set your sails.

I'm not going to conform to some consumer need.

One thing I can't do is do anything half-assed. I want to make sure everything is right, that the song is fully realized.

I like to keep my girlish figure

The darkness is coming now god dammit!

The main thing about the character [in the Ordinary World] is that he loves music, and he shares it with his daughter. He's having a mid-life moment, and it's a small moment, really. I think that the character actually really loves where he's at, in his life. He's just trying to have it make a little bit more sense while he figures out what he actually wants to do with it.

Making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.

I sort of enjoy the fact that I'm misunderstood most of the time. That's fine.

We pride ourselves on trying to put on the best show we can and we're not afraid to say that we happen to be the best live band in the world.

My wife is the CEO of the family. I'm the fun guy, just trying to make it up as I go along.

I think the working-class part of me comes out. Sometimes the people who have the loudest mouths are upper-class, upper-middle-class. The quietest are often working-class people, people who are broke. There is a fear of losing whatever it is that you have. I come from that background.

There's nothing wrong with being a loser, it just depends on how good you are at it.

I just open my mouth and out it comes.

I thought everybody was in on the joke. But I was the joke.

Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle.

Our passion is our strength.

We've been together as a group for a long time so this means a lot... we've done everything ourselves until this point, so thank you to everybody ... do everything you f - -n' believe in, because this is what it's all about.

Madisyn [Shipman] was great. She's a really talented kid. We got along great. It was fun, in between scenes, I'd pull out my iPod and show her different old rock 'n' roll and punk stuff, and she was really into it.

If I look at my old lyrics, they seem to be full of rage, but empty. There was an emptiness in my life.

If someone falls down, pick them back up. Just because there's not a frickin camera in your face doesn't mean you don't have to look out for each other.

To do something that you feel in your heart that's great, you need to make a lot of mistakes. Anything that's successful is a series of mistakes.

When someone is in a car accident and they're driving at 100 mph, drunk, who's tape do you think his listening to at that time? Think about it.

Punk will never be dead to me. It's my life. I can never just drop this lifestyle. It embodies me.

Nobody leaves this band unless it's in a coffin

We put the fun back into dysfunctional

I'm always a work in progress.

People are so damned afraid that one day they might wake up and discover that they've grown old.

I hate television. I hate the internet. I hate cell phones. I hate cameras. I hate everything that destroys creativity.

You don't mow another man's lawn!

People think we really look good. I think that's the biggest misconception people have.

You have to search the absolute demons of your soul to make a great record.

I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of 'Oh, I can't'. They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing.

If journalists ask you again and again about the same bands, you'll end up saying you hate them just because you're so fed up with being asked all those stupid questions.

Every night I play as if my life depends on it.

You don't get nothing and like it.

I think everybody should get married. Boys and girls. Girls and boys. Boys and boys! Girls and girls! Shouldn't we all be entitled to a family-Civil rights baby it's civil rights. It doesn't get any better here in Berkeley I'll tell you that.

You can't go voicing something if it's just not right.

That's the gamble that you make when you decide to become a rock musician. It's totally unpredictable.

A guy walks up to me and asks, "What's Punk?". So I kick over a garbage can and say. "That's punk!". So he kicks over the garbage can and says, "That's Punk?", and I say, "No that's trendy!

Just because you sing songs about a certain feeling doesn't mean you have to go feeling that way forever. You can sing about that for the rest of your life, but that doesn't mean things aren't going to change in your own life.

And for our fans, they're just crazy people anyway. I always look at people in a Green Day shirt, and I think, 'What's wrong with that person? What kind of hang-ups does that person have?' Obviously, it's not just the catchy songs, it goes deeper than that.

My goal is to be one of the biggest bands in the world, and I have never been bashful about saying that.

What annoys the hell out of me is the arrogance of some people. They don't even listen to our music, they decided in advance that they don't like it.

Punk is dead to anyone who didn't get it in the first place

With my family, my sons both love music and play music, and they're really good at it.

I want to go home and just go for a long walk. And where I want to go, I have no idea

Anything that is successful is a series of mistakes.