Steven Morrissey quotes:

Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Band Aid was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music.

Whether it be Beyonce or Justin Bieber, we see singers who have absolutely nothing to offer anyone as they walk off stage clutching three Grammys in each hand.

I don't want to get too involved in marketing budgets, online promotions and download set-ups because it would be a bit like Gertrude Stein mapping out a TV campaign. I want to sing. I want visibility. I am essentially Al Martino, not Seymour Stein.

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.

They are very tame to me. 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.

Diazapam (that's valium), temazepam, lithium, ECT, HRT - how long must I stay on this stuff? Don't give me anymore!

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.

Artists aren't really people. And I'm actually 40 per cent papier mache.

I've never intended to be controversial but it's very easy to be controversial in pop music because nobody ever is.

Now this might disturb you, but I find I'm OK by myself; and I don't need you or your benevolence to make sense.

Even now - in the final hour of my life -I'm falling in love again.

Letting cats and dogs have litters is tantamount to shooting shelter animals in the head since it kills their chances of adoption. Please do the right thing and spay or neuter your animals.

Well, I am an extremely beautiful person.

If you must write prose or poems, the words you use should be your own. Don't plagiarize or take 'on loan'. There's always someone, somewhere, with a big nose, who knows, who'll trip you up and laugh when you fall.

I smoke 'cos I'm hoping for an early death and I need to cling to something.

I left my fingerprints somewhere - that's good enough. I am my own person - that's good enough. I stand my ground - that's good enough.

Boot the grime of this world in the crotch dear.

The more you ignore me, the closer I get; you're wasting your time.

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

The Smiths was an incredibly personal thing to me. It was like launching your own diary to music.

My parents were worried about me, certainly when I became so deeply interested in music and people like the New York Dolls who, at the time, were very peculiar indeed.

If anyone has seen the horrific and unwatchable footage of the Chinese cat and dog trade - animals skinned alive - then they could not possibly argue in favour of China as a caring nation. There are no animal protection laws in China, and this results in the worst animal abuse and cruelty on the planet. It is indefensible.

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.

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.

If you love animals, obviously it doesn't make sense to hurt them.

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 am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism? The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hi-jacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press.

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

There's more to life than books, you know. But not much more.

War, I thought, was the most negative aspect of male heterosexuality. If more men were homosexual, there would be no wars, because homosexual men would never kill other men, whereas heterosexual men love killing other men.

Why pamper life's complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat?

Oh, I can't help quoting you, because everything that you said rings true.

And if you ever need self-validation, Just meet me in the alley by the railway station

The Royal family to me are not England, and they are not the flag.

The monarchy is foremost a business, and it's important to them that the British public continue to finance the excessive luxurious lifestyles of the now quite enormous, wasteful and useless 'royal' family. I find it very sad.

As a very small child I found recorded noise and the solitary singer beneath the spotlight so dramatic and so brave... walking the plank... willingly... It was sink or swim. The very notion of standing there, alone, I found beautiful.

Pop music has progressed. The singing voice has changed dramatically in pop music, and people now just sing the way they want to, in their speaking voice, instead of putting on some great transatlantic rock and roll sneer.

... People are still disturbingly vague about the treatment of animals. People still seem to believe that meat is a particular substance not at all connected to animals playing in the field over there. People don't realise how gruesomely and fighteningly the animal gets to the plate...

Nothing is important, so people, realising that, should get on with their lives, go mad, take their clothes off, jump in the canal, jump into one of those supermarket trolleys, race around the supermarket and steal Mars bars and kiss kittens.

I could only tolerate an afternoon if I took a triple amount of the stated dose of valium prescribed by my GP (who would soon take his own life).

In my life Why do I give valuable time To people who don't care if I live or die ?

I've only been to Ireland once, and I felt I would wake up with voices in my head, almost like music, and that if I were a songwriter, I would be very inspired.

[Sigmund Freud] 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.

You're not right in the head, and nor am I, and this is why....this is why I like you.

You don't like me, but you love me; either way, you're wrong.

Eating meat is the most disgusting thing I can think of. It's like biting into your grandmother.

(About Pop Idols) Obviously, it's designed by record company executives who want a cheap success, and they don't want to give money to anybody and they don't want to give contracts, so they've created this world of very bubbly teenagers who want to be "idols" and they think all they have to do is mime quite well and they've made it. ... But it's not the problem of the kids, it's the problem of the record companies, because it's just an inexpensive way for them to have so-called, I won't say "artists", but erm...You're nodding, you know what I mean.

A heartless hand on my shoulder A push and it's over Alabaster crashes down Six months is a long time Tried living in the real world Instead of a shell But before I began I was bored before I even began

Again, I lay awake, and I cried because of waste.

Age gives you a great sense of proportion. You can be very hard on yourself when you're younger but now I just think 'well everybody's absolutely mad and I'm doing quite well'.

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.

All human activity is fruitless when pitted against the girls and boys singing on pop television, for they have found the answer as the rest of us search for the question. I will sing, too. If not, I will have to die.

All of us, ultimately, we're not that interesting, when it comes down to it.

Although I don't have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.

America is not the world.

And if I seem a little strange Well, that's because I am

And if you have five seconds to spare, I'll tell you the story of my life".

And make no mistake, my friend, your pointless life will end; but before you go, can you look at the truth?

And though I walk home alone, my faith in love is still devout.

Animals are nicer than humans and they're conscious beings. If you stick your grandmother in an oven, she will probably be tasty. But is that any reason to eat your grandmother?

Any criticism of Thatcher throws a dangerously absurd light on the entire machinery of British politics. Thatcher's name must be protected, not because of all the wrong that she had done, but because the people around her allowed her to do it.

Anything is hard to find when you will not open your eyes

Because ENOUGH is TOO MUCH! And look around ...can you blame us?!

Because you wear a uniform, a smelly uniform...and so you think you can be rude to me.

Bring me the head of Elton John . . . which is one instance in which meat would not be murder, if it were served on a plate.

Burn down the discoHang the blessed D.J.Because the music that they constantly playIt says nothing to me about my life

Can you squeeze me into an empty page of your diary and psychologically save me?

Close your eyes, and think of someone you physically admire, and let me kiss you.

Congratulations to Prince Charles for banning foie gras from all his functions.

Denmark is sadly a hellish place if you happen to be a pig, but the brioche and fruits that tower on the table before me have me hastily attaching a feedbag.

Disappointment came to me,and booted me,and bruised and hurt me,but that's how people grow up.

Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body? I dunno...

Doing nothing gives me great pleasure. And believe me, I succeed wonderfully in it.

Don't leave it all unsaid,somewhere in the wasteland of your head.

Don't talk to me about people who are 'nice' cause I have spent my whole life in ruins because of people who are 'nice'.

Each year of life brings us nearer to our decline, but I will continue to seek a listener until I'm dead in a ditch.

Even I, as sick as I am, I would never be you. Even I, sick and depraved, a traveler to the grave, I would never be you.

Even though I've been reasonably well known for quite a long time, I still can't get a record on daytime radio or on MTV.

Even with the recent story about the nurse killing herself in King Edward Hospital, there's no blame placed on Kate Middleton, who was in the hospital as far as I could see for absolutely no reason. She feels no shame about the death of this woman, she's saying nothing about the death of this poor woman. The arrogance of the British royals is staggering, absolutely staggering. And why it's allowed to be I really don't know... It wasn't because of two DJs in Australia that this woman took her own life, it was the pressure around her.

Everyday is like Sunday Everyday is silent and grey

Finally, I can get on with someone

God, come down, if you're really there -Well, you're the one who claims to care!

GQ: "Who'll be the first of the Smiths to die?" M: "Me. I'll be shot - probably by one of the ex-Smiths.

He drove me home in the van, complaining, 'Women only like me for my mind'.

He is pushing his face in all the time and telling us about his private life. Nobody's interested. He should just go away.

He referred to me as an 'insufferable puffed-up prat'. This is a bit rich coming from a man who actually married his own mother.

Hold on to your friends.Resist - or move onBe mad, be rashSmoke and explodeSell all of your clothesJust bear in mind:There just might come a timeWhen you need some friends

How can anybody say they know how I feel? The only one around here who is me, is ME.

Humans are not really very humane.

I always seem to be singing against the grain.

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

I am attracted to humans. But, of course...not many.

I am hated for loving.I am haunted for wanting.

I am human and I need to be loved,just like everybody else does.

I am still my teenage self. If you think that we all step through a door marked Adult, or that we sign a Grown-Up Document, you're quite wrong. We remain as we always were, and that, alas, is one of life's many nasty tricks.

I am stuck in the dream of an album that sells well not because of marketing, but because people like the songs.

I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.

I avoid people who I actually like. I suppose that's a phobia but also a habit.

I began to go to concerts when I was 12 years old. And I would stand there, the small imp that I was, and I would expect the world to be laid before me by these artists, and in some cases it was. So when I climbed onto the stage, I always imagined that I was singing to somebody who was similar to how I had been.

I believe the NME have deliberately tried to characterise me as a racist in a recent interview in order to boost their circulation. I abhor racism and cruelty of any kind and will not let this pass.

I called to wish you an unhappy birthday because you're evil and you lie and if you should die I may feel slightly sad, but I won't cry.

I can chase you, and I can catch you, but there is nothing I can do to make you mine.

I can get incredibly erotic about blotting paper.

I can smell burning flesh... and I hope to God it's human.

I can't believe I'm 29. Where did the years go? Why did the years go?

I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving, England is mine and it owes me a living

I didn't really see the British punk movement, if that's what it was, as wildly original, because I had been listening so intently to all the New York music since 1973, really.

I do maintain that if your hair is wrong, your entire life is wrong.

I don't dream about anyone - except myself

I don't even know if I exist offstage.

I don't iron anything. Never have and never will.

I don't like myself very much as a person, but I'm proud of what I create.

I don't mind if you forget me.Having learned my lesson,I never left an impression on anyone.

I don't perform. Seals perform.

I don't think I've ever made a conscious effort to alter the sound. I don't see the point. I have to remain true to how I sing. I'm perfectly happy with what I am. Whatever that is.

I don't want to go on much longer, really. I think that would suggest a lack of imagination. A certain lack of dignity also.

I find Christmas very difficult

I find shoes difficult to be ethical about...

I find that it isn't wise to attempt to judge people on their public persona, and even on the music they make. Because I've met so many people whose music I cannot stand, and they're very nice. At the same time, I've met people whose music I've loved, and they're not the person you've invested all this emotion in.

I first bought a Buffy Sainte-Marie record when I was 12, and her music has always remained with me. In the 1960s, as a political activist, Buffy's lyrics were fearless, and I'm very grateful for all the risks that she took.