Billy Corgan quotes:

I think a spiritual journey is not so much a journey of discovery. It's a journey of recovery. It's a journey of uncovering your own inner nature. It's already there.

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.

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.

The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.

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.

I started thinking that if post modernism is about people opening up all their skeletons, I'm going the other way. I don't want anyone knowing anything about me anymore.

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.

Most people are living lives of sort of survival. And constantly posing an existential crisis, either through fantasy or oblivion, really has been pretty much explored in rock and roll. At least in the western version of rock n' roll.

You could have a zillion Facebook followers. Those people don't buy records. It's about a hundred to one...Record companies, they don't have any money, so they see social media as the free marketing... So... 'Billy, light yourself on fire and stand upside down, and that'll market the record.'

Most of my arguments with musicians through the years have had more to do with their attitude about music, or their attitude about their own lives, or their personal responsibility. Music has never really been the big centerpiece of the fight.

I was fantasising about my own death, I started thinking what my funeral would be like and what music would be played, I was at that level of insanity.

Compliments and criticism are all ultimately based on some form of projection.

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.

I think God is the most unexplored territory in rock and roll music.

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

If you don't fit into this kind of like gossipy, trendy, Web-hit thingy, you're relegated to sort of second-class celebrity status.

I had concussions as a kid playing football and basketball, and know what it feels like and to have someone say 'Just rub some dirt on it, and get back in there.'

Like any good tree that one would hope to grow, we must set our roots deep into the ground so that what is real will prosper in the Light of Love.

We were in Japan once where they had 30 kinds of green tea. I thought there was one.

I think when I listen to old records, it puts me back in the atmosphere of what it felt like to make the record and who was there and what the room looked like. It's more a sensory memory.

Somewhere between the intellectual idea of why we're attracted to certain things and the pragmatic reality is some form of ever-evolving truth.

One thing I've learned to appreciate as I've gotten a little older is direct forms of communication.

Even if you don't believe in God, exploring fully the idea of a god or gods should pose no threat to you.

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

My step-mom would tell me that she would get complaints from adults that I stared too much at them.

I have a saying, which is, 'Crazy is good for business.' I think rock and roll really is about being a bit crazy.

I've never had coffee. I've always hated the smell. It was always tea. I was a pretty typical kid, though. I grew up drinking Lipton. I didn't know there was other tea to drink.

In my particular instance, I came from a family that didn't have anything. Everything I earned in life I made. Myself. With songs that I wrote.

I like my home and I like the nature.

There's nothing wrong with technology. It's when technology is the story and not the artist, that's the problem.

Injuries are nothing to be ashamed about.

The great thing about rock n' roll is, if you want to fight - like, fight the system, fight the man, fight the government, fight the people in front of you - it's Don Quixote all over again. You're really chasing windmills.

I do not trust those who make the vaccines, or the apparatus behind it all to push it on us through fear.

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.

Do I belong in the conversation about the best artists in the world? My answer is yes, I do.

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.

I work differently than most people.

I grew up in a house of no love or emotion - it kind of sticks with you.

To re-embrace what I once loved about music has been a warming process for me, because it's a good, earned feeling now.

Well, I'm known as a guitar-rock guy, you know? You're not supposed to play with synthesizers. This is not in the rulebook.

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

I look at other members of my generation who have basically done one thing, and one thing well, and have been handsomely rewarded for it.

You have to be willing to deal with the ups and downs of the music, the ups and downs of the audience.

All I can go on is my own value system.

My mother and I parting company at four years old is a recurring theme; although it's not symbolically necessarily present, it's present in all my relationships.

People try to make a big deal, like I don't want to play my old songs. That's not it. I don't want to play my old songs if that's my only option. That's a different thing.

The desire to hit a big home run is dominating the music business.

Indie world won't have me, and mainstream world treats me like an alien, but here I am still floating between these two worlds.

In our lives in a lot of ways it's all about fake. You've got people wanting things for fake reasons.

You've got to be ready to be in a great relationship.

Pink ribbon scarsThat never forgetI've tried so hardTo cleanse these regretsMy angel wingsWere bruised and restrainedMy belly stings"

When alternative music - which is supposed to be the standard-bearer of where white rock is headed - becomes either too cute or too manufactured, that's just really not good.

Well, all rock and roll is based in artifice.

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

I mean my point as an artist is I'm on my own little weird journey across the sky here and whether or not anybody's listening, or listening to the degree I would like them to, at the end of the day has to be an inconsequential thing because I can't chase this culture.

To me, music was about being accepted and escaping from this crummy existence

It was shocking to see Nirvana play, because it was like, "Here's this little guy with a monster-guitar sound." And it was heavier than Black Sabbath. That was shocking.

It seems to me that references to bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin meant more to me a year ago and all those old things are totally losing importance.

I don't wanna play this kind of cartoon character anymore.

These days you're not just competing with the tedium, you're competing with the cellphone.

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.

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.'

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.

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.

The weird nihilism that permeates Mellon Collie is extremely relevant to what's going on right now. So many kids are intelligent and articulate, but they don't know what to do with themselves.

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.

That's the age that people are exploited, exploitable, and they're easily manipulated. The problem with me is, you can't manipulate me anymore. I've seen it, I know it, I've been there. And that's partially why, particularly in America, you see issues with artists as they get older. And they like to keep it a young man's game. Because that's how they can fudge around with the rules.

Great music completely obliterates any conceptions of genre.

People act like Nirvana invented grunge; they just took it and personified it.

We had a wonderful time with this kind of grunge awareness, where suddenly rock was cool again. People wanted to head loud guitars. It was a great time, and I'm glad we were there. But the gimmick part has worn off.

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.

You give me a @#$%& kazoo and I'll write you a good song.

There's been someone up here screaming 'Landslide' for the whole show... Normally we don't play 'Landslide,' but on occasion we've been known to play it... So since this person's been screaming it all show long... That just about kills the chances of me playing it tonight, or ever again.

In my Corgan brain, I've decided it's almost as simple as 'All you need is love.' Almost.

About six months ago, I listened to Siamese Dream. That was the first time I'd ever really heard my own album, because I had separated from the experience of making the record. And it really moved me. It made me cry, it's so beautiful.

People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.

Around the mid-'90s every hair guy who would have been in a hair-metal band got his tattoos and suddenly decided he was alternative. It just became like a thing.

A missive to all you metal bands, the world is totally over the rock thing. Rock is deader than it's ever been.

Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.

You can only be this high-powered mojo rock band for so long, then you just can't look people in the eye. So, we've projected our own demise.

I'm very disappointed in my country right now, because I think we've kind of lost our moral compass.

If practice makes perfect, and no one's perfect, then why practice?

Destruction is a true sign of devotion. As I always tell my girlfriend when she threatens to kill me. 'You should kill me and it would tell me that you love me.

Why is it that all non-conformists look the same?

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.

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.

I'm a Pisces, and Pisces have this weird inability to be completely spontaneous. We're too conscious of our actions. I've always been way too sensible for my own good.

I was part of a generation that changed the world, and it was taken over by posers.

What bothers me is when music becomes entertainment. Of course, music is supposed to be entertaining, but go back to any period of time - music had a cultural significance on different levels, whether it was folk music, it was the news of the village, or it had to do with the rites of passage.

I've always been spiritual but I've never had a proper context, and it took me a while 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

I grew up in the suburbs and basically associate the suburbs with cultural death.

I do not think wrestling is going to save the world.

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

Heavy metal is a universal energy -- it's the sound of a volcano. It's rock, it's earth shattering. Somewhere in our primal being we understand.

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

I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins.

Smashing Pumpkins has never been a band about hit songs.

The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.

We need to get back to a level of social responsibility that we haven't seen for a long time.

I'm Irish and I was born on St. Patrick's day. I'm lucky sevens.

Stay in school. Lie to your teachers, but stay in school.

Radiohead and Our Lady Peace are doing the seven layers of guitar, and I kind of jumped on that before anyone else did.

Thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really only a way of ignoring the present.

I'm not interested in pop art.

We've turned into a whining society.

The title of a song is like the wrapping on a present.

In a weird kind of way, music has afforded me an idealism and perfectionism that I could never attain as me.

What most people do is try to find a comfortable persona that they're in alignment with and the public likes and appreciates them for.

If I worried about appearances, I wouldn't be at Cubs games.

You know Americans are obsessed with life and death and rebirth, that's the American Cycle. You know, awakening, tragic, horrible death and then Phoenix rising from the ashes. That's the American story, again and again.

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.

When I've tried to reinvent the wheel, I get bashed for not doing the familiar things.

I had such a big mouth for so long that it doesn't faze anybody anymore.

I did 13-something years of talking to wrestlers and promoters about why they did certain things and why they booked matches a certain way and what they were thinking and whether they were satisfied with the draw. And I got a lot of insight in the business.

In my case I don't mind playing a character that irritates people or makes people question my sanity.

The funny thing about me that most people never really understand is that, at heart, I'm really a jock.

I always thought Kurt Cobain was the perfect embodiment of the great alternative guitar player.

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

I just don't want to live in the past. I'm really disappointed by so many people of my generation who - in order to promote their new work, they have to constantly lean on their past. I don't want to be that type of artist... I see a lot of people out here doing really marginal music.

Calm, open debate, and logical thought drive strength to its maximum effectiveness.