Russell brand quotes

Everyone has their own mantra.

Perhaps if we could popularise through the techniques of branding and consumerism, a different idea, a different narrative, perhaps the world can change. After all it changes constantly and incessantly, it's just the perceptions that we have are governed by people with self-interest and are not inalignment with the health and safety of us as individuals or as a planet.

I enjoyed having a reputation as being wild, but these days I try not to worry about what people think in the privacy of their own brain or what they write in the bizarre publicity of their own newspapers, because all of those things are meaningless.

I also quite like to be recognized by children; I find it sweet.

It was crushingly disappointing as a fan of The Simpsons to discover that it's just you in a room speaking into a microphone. I thought I was going to become friends with Homer Simpson, but unfortunately none of them are real.

I couldn't possibly have sex with someone with such a slender grasp on grammar!

Imagine the wisdom to be passed down from the classical Buddhist texts.

Surfing should be called "foam-choking" or "sea stabbing.

I'm not better than you; I'm just different than you in a way that's better.

The only systems we can afford to employ are those that rationally serve the planet first, then all humanity. Not out of some woolly, bullshit tree-hugging piffle but because we live on it, currently without alternatives.

Rebel children, I urge you, fight the turgid slick of conformity with which they seek to smother your glory.

Socialism isn't a dirty word; it just means sharing. Really, it's just the bureaucratic arm of Christianity.

The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help they have no hope.

The more people who have access to this vital information the better society will be.

No-one really feels self-confident deep down because it's an artificial idea. Really, people aren't that worried about what you're doing or what you're saying, so you can drift around the world relatively anonymously: you must not feel persecuted and examined. Liberate yourself from that idea that people are watching you.

The world isn't made of atoms, it's made of stories.

Fear travels fast. Love travels a little more slowly. Rationale takes a little more consideration.

Animals, children, and the working class comprise the company in which I'll feel most at ease.

I really love to be with people. It's nice, that. To have achieved sudden intimacy with strangers is perhaps the most human thing you can do. We all love our friends and families, as much as we hate them. When you can achieve intimacy with strangers, it's very exciting and heartening.

I want to change the world, and do something valuable and beautiful. I want people to remember me before I'm dead, and then more afterwards.

I like threesomes with two women, not because I'm a cynical sexual predator. Oh no! But because I'm a romantic. I'm looking for "The One." And I'll find her more quickly if I audition two at a time.

What was so painful about Amy’s death is that I know that there is something I could have done. I could have passed on to her the solution that was freely given to me. Don’t pick up a drink or drug, one day at a time. It sounds so simple; it actually is simple but it isn’t easy; it requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.

It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you.

The right to free speech is important but it isn't as important as 'we're all human beings together, let's find solutions together.'

I didn't cross the line, you drew it in after I traversed it.

Addiction is a serious desease; it will end with jail, mental institutions or death.

I also do a lot of Kundalini yoga.

Where those two energies [male and female energies] intersect, all creativity is possible. We already have divine creative energy within us. And what is the most powerful of these energies? The energy that patriarchy and misogyny constantly try to repress. The divine female sexual energy. The creative energy of the female. That is why I worship divine sexual female energy.

You can’t absolutely make everything the way you want it to be in life. Sometimes thing are just different and then you to just move with that and try and remain in contact with what is beautiful about yourself and each other with any situation.

A personality for the incredibly beautiful can be a pointless cargo.

Marketing is all pervasive. They're getting marketed products they can't afford - can't ever hope to acquire. They believe the only way they're ever going to achieve happiness is the acquisition of these products. Products they can't afford. They see people living that lifestyle, and they have that lifestyle beamed incessantly into their minds through media, which you know I participate in.

On respect for the Queen: When I lick a stamp I always do it with my eyes closed.

Say I feel all sad and self-indulgent, then get stung by a wasp, my misery feels quite abstract and I long just to be in spiritual pain once more - 'damn you tiny assassin, clad in yellow and black, how I crave my former innocence where melancholy was my only trial'.

Turns out it was mostly a lie. But, at least for a short while, it was a beautiful one.

I struggle in these situations not to let my madness govern me, and to let the positive aspects of my character define my life.

All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill. We need to review the way society treats addicts, not as criminals but as sick people in need of care.

I keep hearing in my head "you are the Messiah, you are the Messiah." I think there's something wrong with my headphones.

Honesty has always been an integral part of my operation, really.

I didn't take a job on Fox News because I'm interested in progress. I'm interested in shouting and pointing and simplifying things!

What it felt to me was like the dissolution of my idea of myself. I felt like separateness evaporated. I felt this tremendous sense of oneness. I'm quite an erratic thinker, quite an adrenalized person, but through meditation, I found this beautiful serenity and selfless connection. My tendency towards selfishness, I felt that kind of exposed as a superficial and pointless perspective to have. I felt very relaxed, a sense of oneness. I felt love.

I don't mind having a reputation as a serious and spiritual person. I think that would be a nice reputation to have

See all these buildings, Russell? All these buildings were once a drawing on a piece of paper, and before that they were an idea in someone’s head. Any idea that you have, you can make manifest.

From quite early on, I had this idea of compartmentalized identities - 'this is how you are when you are with your mum, and this is how you are when you are with your dad' - so it seemed like I could never absolutely be myself. And the image of myself as compromised and inconsistent made me want to withdraw from the world even further. I had a sense of formulating a paper-mache version of myself to send out in the world, while I sat controlling it remotely from some smug suburban barracks.

You must not feel persecuted and examined. Liberate yourself from the idea that people are watching you.

How we treat the vulnerable is how we define ourselves as a species.

When it comes to your career, you must always try and allow the positive aspects of your character to dictate what happens to you. Be led by your talent, not by your self-loathing; those other things you just have to manage.

Anyone who's been poor and gets rich is stalked by guilt and fear. Guilt because you know it isn't fair, that life hasn't changed for everyone

People do this a lot. They don't seem to realise that the future is just like now, but in a little while, so they say they're going to do things in anticipation of some kind of seismic shift in their worldview that never actually materializes. But everything's not going to be made of leather, the world won't stink of sherbet. Tomorrow is not some mythical kingdom where you'll grow butterfly wings and be able to talk to animals -- you'll basically feel pretty much the same way you do at the moment.

I say us - obviously I don't vote as I believe democracy is a pointless spectacle where we choose between two indistinguishable political parties, neither of whom represent the people but the interest of powerful business elites that run the world.

When I was poor and I complained about inequality they said I was bitter. Now I'm rich and I complain about inequality they say I'm a hypocrite. I'm starting to think they just don't want to talk about inequality.

As a producer, you've got to be involved in helping out with solving problems.

Consciousness exists beyond your head, between our heads, and it can manifest harmony.

I'm quite a neurotic thinker, quite an adrenalized person. But after meditation, I felt this beautiful serenity and selfless connection.

I missed him, of course, but sometimes close friendships have a tidal beat that pulls you towards different shores though the ocean that connects you remains.

The bad-boy label is just an assumption.

I regret that I didn’t realize that actually they’ve got no power over you at school — it’s all just a trick to indoctrinate you into being a conditioned, tame, placid citizen. Rebel, children, I urge you, fight the turgid slick of conformity with which they seek to smother your glory.

I don't see why someone should lose their life just so you can have a snack.

We don't need to know what goes on beyond time. We need to know how to save this planet that we live on. To align our consciousness with the fundamental frequencies with which all have in common, and to generate love and energy between us.

Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space.

What I might do is watch Mrs Doubtfire. Or Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting and I might be nice to people, mindful today how fragile we all are, how delicate we are, even when fizzing with divine madness that seems like it will never expire.

I don't get my authority from this preexisting paradigm which is quite narrow and only serves a few people. I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity.

Imagining the overthrow of the current political system is the only way I can be enthused about politics.

It's no wonder Bob Geldof knows so much about famine - he's been dining out on I Don't Like Mondays for 30 years.

As long as we prioritize material truths over spiritual truths we will live in tyranny because we are living an illusion

The greatest poverty one can have is to be poor in one's heart and for falling in love, he is truly happy. He discovers purpose.

If love is something you cherish, it is hard to glean much joy from death, even in one's enemies.

Question all information when you receive it. You might not even trust me Look at me, I've got a blanket over me head.

Normally, I'm good at first dates, 'cause that's the only date I ever have, so I know how to control it and be confident.

We all need something to help us unwind at the end of the day. You might have a glass of wine, or a joint, or a big delicious blob of heroin to silence your silly brainbox of its witterings but there has to be some form of punctuation, or life just seems utterly relentless.

Every moment is a fresh new beginning... a wonderful inauguration of the great cosmic journey through the Universe. We can do whatever we want. We can change reality at any moment.

The revolution that's required isn't a revolution of radical ideas, but the implementation of ideas we already have.

To this day, I feel a fierce warmth for women that have the same disregard for the social conventions of sexual protocol as I do. I love it when I meet a woman and her sexuality is dancing across her face, so it's apparent that all we need to do is nod and find a cupboard.

People who say the system works work for the system.

Apathy is a rational reaction to a system that no longer represents, hears or addresses the vast majority of people.

A buddy of mine was addicted to heroin and he told me that people who say quitting cigarettes is harder than quitting heroin are wrong.

I think many of the boundaries that convention has placed upon us are arbitrary, so we can fiddle with them if we fancy. Gravity's hard to dispute, and breathing, but a lot of things we instinctively obey are a lot of old tosh.

When you're married, it's one person. That's one more than a monk. It's not that different.

The only Revolution that can really change the world is the one in your own consciousness, and mine has already begun.

How long is it polite to continue to be interested in what someone says after they reveal they've got a boyfriend?

When I was growing up, I thought I'd be a lot happier if I was famous and successful and if I had money.

By puberty I learned that nothing worth having could be easily attained and to succeed one must be single minded.

Life is not a theme park, and if it is, the theme is death.

Im happy to be a part of the conversation, if more young people are talking about fracking instead of twerking were heading in the right direction. The people that govern us dont want an active population who are politically engaged, they want passive consumers distracted by the spectacle of which I accept I am a part.

The best thing you can do is fall in love. My life has been changed by falling in love.

I think all of us are living in denial of our spiritual nature as we continue to participate in the material world even though we know we're destroying the planet we live on.

It seems to me that actual democracy is where all of us get to participate and it's not just a sort of a blunt little dry hump in a ballot box, but an actual penetrative process.

There's no biological reason why a man shouldn't just try to have sex with every woman he meets - all of them get pregnant and your genetics are winning.

When you fall in love you recognise you're not the most important person in the world, and your focus becomes another person.

Have you considered that the Bible, like all religious doctrine, may be allegorical and symbolic, to direct us toward one holy entity of love, as opposed to a simplistic litiginous text to direct the behavior of human beings?

Eventually, I think you find a spiritual and emotional connection with someone, and I think it unifies you with everyone else. I think if you love one person, it makes you love everyone.

Over the road there was a church: a modern gray building, which constantly played a recording of church bells. Strange it was. Why no proper bells? I never went in but I bet it was a robot church for androids, where the Bible was in binary and their Jesus had laser eyes and metal claws.

It doesn't take an incredible manner of analysis to reveal that our primary desires are incessantly stimulated to keep us basic consumers.

Nigel Farage and Sean Hannity is like a super group of idiots.

It is difficult to feel sympathy for these people. It is difficult to regard some bawdy drunk and see them as sick and powerless. It is difficult to suffer the selfishness of a drug addict who will lie to you and steal from you and forgive them and offer them help. Can there be any other disease that renders its victims so unappealing?

If you have no brothers and sisters it defines you for life; even when you're thirty you refer to yourself as an only child.

Strength does not have to be belligerent and loud.

Our social and economic systems are so devoid of humanity and love.

I think what's actually happened is print media is becoming obsolete, and this is like the floundering corpse of a dying media. It is just twitching.

Consciousness does affect matter.

Drugs and alcohol are not my problem, reality is my problem, drugs and alcohol are my solution.

Even as a junkie I stayed true [to vegetarianism] - 'I shall have heroin, but I shan't have a hamburger.' What a sexy little paradox.

You're a musician, it is important that you suffer!

Life’s never a postcard of life, is it? It never feels like how you’d want it to look.

Then, of course, through the umbilical link we all tumble backwards down the spiralling DNA staircase to one common ancestor in Africa, and before that some bunch of curious monkeys. Down and down we go unto the sea, unto the dust, the single cellular dust. What impulse drove one cell to become two? What yearning pulled the fish on to the land? What caused apes to walk upright? Some invisible magnetic pull. Is there a difference between attraction and intention? Where is evolution taking us?

Don't listen to me. I'm a maniac, but the voice in your head, ask it "Is it right to kill 200 million animals simply for fun?". What did it say? Right. There you go.

I'm famous now. But now that I've got fame and some of the other things I thought would make me happy - it ain't worked

No one shuts their laptop after looking at pornography and says, 'What a productive time I just spent connecting with the world!'

I thought I was promiscuous, but it turns out I was just thorough.

And I don't think we should be continuing to propagate the idea that famous people are magical or special because it makes people feel like their lives ain't no good.

I recognize that I have the ability to be selfish, but I also recognize that you can't be happy if you only care about yourself at the expense of other people.

Be led by your talent, not by your self-loathing; those other things you just have to manage.

Of all the consumer products, chewing gum is perhaps the most ridiculous: it literally has no nourishment – you just chew it to give yourself something to do with your stupid idiot Western mouth. Half the world is starving, and the other’s going, ‘I don’t actually need any nutrition, but it would be good to masticate, just to keep my mind off things.

I'm into yoga, I meditate all the time, I'm vegetarian.

I think that there is an infinite creative force that generates all consciousness and all matter and we are all connected and if you align yourself with this infinite creative force then you can be positive and you can be beautiful, I don't think its a person or god, I don't believe in any particular doctrine or dogma, only that humanity is connected.

This is no time for drinking a mug of water - which you would do nowhere else in the world. A mug of water! You just don't drink water from mugs, do ya? Except on the telly. Water out of a mug! Should be a hot drink... mug of water.

We continue to be spilled on by consumerism even though we know it doesn't make us happy.

People don't throw your bags out of windows because of lies; they throw them out because of the truth.

What was alien was being ordinary, being humdrum, being trapped into appeasing...having to crush and stifle my opinions, not being allowed to be brilliant, tricking myself into mediocrity.

Revolt in whatever way we want, with the spontaneity of the London rioters, with the certainty and willingness to die of religious fundamentalists or with the twinkling mischief of the trickster... Take to the streets, together, with the understanding that the feeling that you aren't being heard or seen or represented isn't psychosis; it's government policy.

If people have some sort of yearning, dissatisfaction or some itching irritability, then it might because they aren't looking in the right direction for a solution. They aren't looking within.

The priority of any addict is to anaesthetise the pain of living to ease the passage of day with some purchased relief.

My life is just a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents.

I have never voted. Like most people I am utterly disenchanted by politics. Like most people I regard politicians as frauds and liars and the current political system as nothing more than a bureaucratic means for furthering the augmentation and advantages of economic elites.

If your body is 90% water what have you got to drink water all the time for? Why can't you just have some crisps?

I've never had a sustained period of medication for mental illness when I've not been on other drugs as well. It's just not something that I particularly feel I need. I know that I have dramatically changing moods, and I know sometimes I feel really depressed, but I think that's just life. I don't think of it as, "Ah, this is mental illness," more as, "Today, life makes me feel very sad." I know I also get unnaturally high levels of energy and quickness of thought, but I'm able to utilize that.