Quotes by Billie Armstrong

• 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.
• School is practice for future life, practice makes perfect and nobodys perfect, so why practice?
• The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.
• 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.
• We put everything we had into this record, just like we do with every other record that we make.
• 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.
• Moshing and broken glass just don't go together.
• Punk will never be dead to me. It's my life. I can never just drop this lifestyle. It embodies me.
• 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.
• I don't want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.
• I'd love to go to art school. I'd love to learn how to draw. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish. I'd like to be a brain surgeon.
• 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.
• I'm very monogamous.
• If I look at my old lyrics, they seem to be full of rage, but empty. There was an emptiness in my life.
• If Britney would paint her ass green, I'm sure you could spot green asses all over LA as soon as the word was out.
• I sort of enjoy the fact that I'm misunderstood most of the time. That's fine.
• Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle.
• 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.
• No one's really happy anyway, it's not human.
• I think it's your own choice if you turn from an angry young man to a bitter, old bastard.
• 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.
• I never thought being obnoxious would get me where I am today.
• If you have children, you don't want to have drugs and drinks in the house. It's just not good.
• Making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.
• A punk concert isn't fun without a pit.
• Music - that's been my education. There's not a day that goes by that I take it for granted.
• Our passion is our strength.
• People are so damned afraid that one day they might wake up and discover that they've grown old.
• 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 like LA. The majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn't it sick?