Book detail: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
Browse quotes from Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.
The quotes below use the same card format as the rest of the site, including topics, source notes, copy actions, image creation, and sharing controls.
Read more
“I love that word. Forever. I love that forever doesn't exist, but we have a word for it anyway, and use it all the time. It's beautiful and doomed.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“They look at us clean-haired, well-behaved children in our maroon blazers, starched white shirts and striped ties with contempt. Their holey grey socks are crumpled around their ankles, they don't wear silly short-shorts like all the other boys in my – their shorts are long, right down to their scabby knees. They have greasy brown fringes hanging in their eyes. One of them has a scar on his freckled cheek. I think to myself, Thank goodness, two good-looking boys at school at last. I want to clap my hands together with glee. I don't know where this thought comes from. I don't recognize it. I've never cared about boys before, up until now they've been invisible to me, not important in my world. No one's ever told me about bad boys, that they're sexy and compelling, or to stay away from them. I work all this out by myself, today - at eight years old, in Class Three.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Skinny as Mum was, she'd always had a good appetite, so when she couldn't eat her roast potatoes I knew the end must be nigh.
[...] We opened our presents and Mum put a polka-dot shower cap on her head and let us take pictures of her in it, which was most unlike her, she liked to be a bit dignified about things. This was another indication that she knew she was dying. Other signs to look out for are when an elderly person starts giving away their things – usually about two or three years before they die – and if they insist, rather aggressively, on returning anything they've borrowed or get annoyed if you give them gifts – they don't want any more clutter.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I think most people in long marriages have a touch of Stockholm Syndrome”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“The French love their dogs. I’m always suspicious of people who adore animals, they often don’t care much for humans.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Musicians are our real teachers. They are opening us up politically with their lyrics and creatively with experimental, psychedelic music. They share their discoveries and journeys with us. We can’t travel far, no one I know has ever been on an aeroplane. ... whatever they experience, we experience through their songs. It’s true folk music — not played on acoustic guitar by a bearded bloke — but about true-life experiences.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“You never look at your plate with disappointment here, eating seems to be a penance back home [in England] but in America they make food fun.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I hear a phone ringing through the thick fuzzy air. It's Thunders, asking me to join the Heartbreakers. He says to come over to the rehearsal studios right now. I’m scared but I go anyway. That should be written on my gravestone. She was scared. But she went anyway.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“The pain I feel from the Slits ending is worse than splitting up with a boyfriend, my parents divorcing or being chucked out of the Flowers of Romance: this feels like the death of a huge part of myself, two whole thirds gone. Now the Slits are over and Tessa has recovered, I’ve got nowhere to go, nothing to do; I’m cast back into the world like a sycamore seed spinning into the wind. I’m burnt out and my heart is broken. I can’t bear to listen to music. Every time I hear a song I feel physical pain, just to hear instruments is unbearable, it reminds me of what I’ve lost.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Shitting and bleeding. Always had a problem with shit and blood. The English love to talk about shitting, so other nationalities can skip this bit.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I feel more confident with the posh mums. I’ve found someone who gets me. It’s OK that I don’t fit in here, I fit in somewhere else, so I can relax. I’m not mad, I’m not wrong, I’m just not in the right environment.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I decide I’ll just have to be myself. I’m sick of pretending anyway – of policing my words and editing my thoughts. Husband never wants me to talk about the Slits or my ceramics or make rude jokes, I’m losing every ounce of the person I used to be. I know she wasn’t all good, but she wasn’t all bad either. I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not for this bloke who lives miles away across the sea. I’m not going to try and be nice and seductive for him. There are so many people in my life that I’m putting on a front for, I don’t need one more. If he doesn’t like me for who I am, forget it.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Until now, I haven’t really been rejected because the way a girl usually lets a guy know she likes him, with looks, hints, smiles, telling a friend of his, means we don’t directly experience rejection. And the first couple of times it happens to me, it hurts. But after a while, I think,
Oh well, I’ve filled my quota. On to the next one.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I've got so used to my life being challenging and fraught with danger that I don't question it any more. Whether I’m knocking on the door of a hardcore sex shop, walking through suburban streets being verbally abused and spat on, or being threatened on the tube, I don't give in. I don’t dress normally to have an easy life. The pilgrimage down the King’s Road to get to the Shop (Sex: everyone calls it ‘the Shop’), the place I want to hang out and buy stuff, is one of the scariest things I do — running the gauntlet of teds who want to kill people like me — but nothing will stop me looking the way I want. It’s a commitment.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I can't imagine what a happy home is like: parents cuddling and laughing, music playing, books on the shelves, discussions round the table? We don’t have any of that, but if Mum’s happy, I’m happy.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Palmolive wrote the lyrics to ‘Newtown’ too. The song was originally called ‘Drugtown’, but I changed it to ‘Newtown’, thinking about all the new towns that are springing up around the edges of London, like Milton Keynes and Crawley. The young people growing up there are so bored, they take loads of drugs and drive around really fast or beat each other up at football matches, then they get up and commute to their dull jobs on Monday morning. Palmolive made up these great words like ‘televisina’ and ‘footballina’ as drug names, I think only a foreigner could do that.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“In the past I listened to tracks as a whole, paying most attention to the lyrics. Words were what I knew, what I was familiar with; they worked or didn’t work for me. That’s how girls listened to songs.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I go to my doctor, Dr Shah, for a check-up. He says he saw my husband in the surgery last week about a minor complaint. ‘He doesn’t love you, you know,’ he says matter-of-factly. ‘He doesn’t care about you. I’ve seen it many times, when the weaker of the two becomes dominant and tries to undermine the stronger one.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“It’s become quite difficult nowadays to disagree with other women without being called anti-feminist.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Anyone who writes an autobiography is either a twat or broke. I’m a bit of both.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Anyone who writes an autobiography is either a twat or broke.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Daddy, I want to be a pop singer when I grow up.’ There, it’s out, I’ve dared to voice my dream, to say it out loud. Dad is the only adult I know who has some interest in music, even if it is Petula Clark, and now I've told him, I've taken the first step towards making my dream real. Dad will know what to do, how to get me started, point me in the right direction.
'You're not chic enough.' I don't know what the word chic means but I know what he means. I understand from the tone of his voice that I'm having ideas about myself that are way above my looks, capabilities and charms, and I believe him. He must be right, he’s my father.
Dad and I walk along in silence. I think, He didn’t ask me if I can sing - but obviously that doesn’t matter. I’m just not chic enough.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Things get a bit out of hand at Caroline's. No one eats anything, someone pisses in the pot plants and the turkey is stuffed, arse up, down the toilet. I didn’t see who did it, but it was obviously the silly English boys, the Americans would never do anything like that, they’re much more respectful.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I rush home and put the record on ['Horses’ by Patti Smith]. It hurts through stream of consciousness, careers into poetry and dissolves into sex. [...] She’s a private person who dares to let go in front of everyone, puts herself out there and risks falling flat on her face. Up until now girls have been controlled and restrained. Patti Smith is abandoned. [...] Listening to Horses unlocks an idea for me - girls’ sexuality can be on their own terms, for their own pleasure or creative work, not just for exploitation or to get a man. [...] Hearing Patti Smith be sexual, building to an organic crescendo, whilst leading a band, is so exciting. It’s emancipating. If I can take a quarter or even eighth of what she has and not give a shit about making a fool of myself, maybe I can still do something with my life.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I’m too outspoken for most people, they think you’re rude if you tell the truth. ‘Punk’ was the only time I fitted in. Just one tiny sliver of time where it was acceptable to say what you thought.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Jeannot offers me heroin. I’m tempted. Not because I want to forget what I’ve done, or because I’m so down, even though both are true, but because I’ve lost my identity. I haven’t a clue who I am. I feel like a nothing. But I know without a doubt, if I take heroin now, I will destroy the tiny morsel of myself that is left, I will be lost forever. (Funny how heroin comes along at times like this. These guys can smell your weakness, like sharks smell blood.) I muster all my strength and say no.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I can’t stand up in front of people and play and sing. I would rather die.
Remember, Viv, the Year of Saying Yes. So what if I die? So what if I’m crap and make a fool of myself? I know that no one ever does anything or gets anywhere without failure and foolishness. I’ve got to do it. Nelson has made me an offer I can’t refuse, the bugger.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I think of it as saying Yes to Nothing. If your choice is either the wrong thing or nothing, however frightened you are, you’ve got to take nothing. Haven’t you?”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Ari [Up] was an artist and an artist needs love more than anyone, she needed loads, but I don’t know if she got enough on a one-to-one level. Everything came second to her music, even family. You have to be selfish to be an artist; your family just have to accept that. It’s not personal, it’s not that you don’t love them. What an artist gives their family isn’t routine and their constant presence, they give vitality and ideas, independence and creative thinking.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I put on a tight black lace dress Sid got me from a jumble sale. It didn’t quite fit so he slashed a slit in the side – which is now held together with safety pins – then he hacked the bottom off whilst I was wearing it, leaving the hem really short and frayed. I pull on my holey black tights and Dr Marten boots; I still never wear heels if I’m seeing Sid.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“We're invincible together. We have no doubt that the Slits are great and are going to change the world. We're on a mission and pity anyone who doesn’t get it.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Ari [Up] hides nothing from our audiences: if she’s in a bad mood, she shows it, and if we happen to be on stage when she’s not happy, she just does a shit gig. There’s no
You’ve paid money to see this so I’m going to give you a good time, or I’m not going to let the band down – she’s just grumpy and uncommunicative. This is a good thing in many ways, we’re against faking it, we tell it like it is. People in bands are just like the audience: they have good days and bad days, we’re not pantomime or theatre, we’re no different to anyone else. We don’t see ourselves as entertainers, trying to make the audience forget their troubles for forty minutes. We see ourselves as warriors. We’d rather people confronted their anger and dissatisfaction and did something about it. Like Luis Buñuel said, ‘I’m not here to entertain you, I’m here to make you feel uncomfortable.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“We cry as loud as we can, hoping Mum will stop him or the neighbors will hear us and come round and tell him off or have him sent to prison. But no one interferes once you've shut the front door of your home. The house next door could be in a different country for all they care.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Vivienne [Westwood] and Malcolm [McLaren] use clothes to shock, irritate and provoke a reaction but also to inspire change. Mohair jumpers, knitted on big needles, so loosely that you can see all the way through them, T-shirts slashed and written on by hand, seams and labels on the outside, showing the construction of the piece; these attitudes are reflected in the music we make. It’s ok not to be perfect, to show the workings of your life and your mind in your songs and your clothes. And everything you do in life is meaningful on a political level. That’s why we’re all merciless about each other’s failings and why sloppiness is derided.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I say something provocative to Posh Boy, he threatens me with violence, and the next thing I know, Sid's whipped off his studded belt, wrapped around his fist and smashed Posh Boy over the head with the buckle end. Splits his head open. (Sid taught me this move: wrap the tongue of the belt round your hand, use the buckle as the weapon, it's important to lock your arm straight whilst you wield the belt, and do the worst thing you can think of first. That’s the only chance you’ve got.)”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“[On Vivienne Westwood] Vivienne’s scary, for the reason any truthful, plain-talking person is scary – she exposes you. If you haven’t been honest with yourself, this makes you feel extremely uncomfortable, and if you are a con merchant the game is up. She's uncompromising in every way: what she says, what she stands for, what she expects from you and how she dresses. She's direct and judgmental with a strong northern accent that accentuates her sincerity. She has a confidence I haven't seen in any other woman. She’s strong, opinionated and smart. She can’t beat complacency. She’s the most inspiring person I’ve ever met. Sid told me, ‘Vivienne says you’re talented but last.’ I’ve worked at everything twice as hard since he said that.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I also realized I was right to trust my instincts. No matter how silly you feel or uncool you look, no matter how small that voice inside you is, that voice telling you something isn’t right: listen to it. [After the incident with guys inviting them to a party where Ari got rapped and Viv had gone home because the party didn’t feel right].”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“The Woodcraft Folk is a youth organisation, a bit like Brownies or Scouts but it mixes boys and girls together and has an arty, bohemian vibe. [...] We call the adults in charge ‘leaders’ and address them by their Christian names – this is the first time I'm allowed to call an adult by their first name. At Woodcraft children are treated like people, not half-formed irrelevant creatures, we are consulted on every decision that's made.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“The good thing about shocking is that it clears the brain of preconceptions for a moment, and in that moment the work has a chance to cut through all the habits and learnt behavior of the viewer and make a fresh impact, before all the conditioning crowds in again.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Also, when girls have an opinion, and the manager is a man, sexual politics rears its ugly head. They don’t hear,
'We don’t want to play those kinds of venues, we’re trying to create a whole new experience, so even the venues we play have to be thought about carefully.'
They hear, 'I don’t want to fuck you.'
They try and treat us like malleable objects to mould or fuck or make money out of.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I think there’s something very healthy about keeping your own cave clean. It is a good barometer of how your life is going, the state of your home. If it’s a complete tip, you’re taking on too much or depressed; if someone else has to keep it clean for you, it’s too big or you’re too busy.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Everyone knows how to get a squat: you go along to an empty house at night, break in, change the locks and it’s yours. [...] Later we’ll have someone to jam the electricity meter with a pin so we have free electricity. Everyone does that.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Mi marido está, con razón, cabreado e intimidado por lo que él percibe como una pasión mía hacia Vincent Gallo, pero en realidad es lo que Vincent me hace sentir por mí lo que me tiene obnubilada y no lo que siento por él. Si Marido me hubiese estimulado en mis posibilidades creativas, aunque solo fuera un poquito, Vincent Gallo no me tendría así de obnubilada.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“After so long worrying and being fearful, living by the sea and running is giving me the mental space to think creatively again for the first time in years. With the salty wind on my face, feet pounding on the shingle, Kate Bush, The Hounds of Love
, on my iPod, new thoughts enter my head.
What do I think about that architecture?
as I run past a white modernist house: ‘I like the shape of the house but the windows are too small.’
What do I think of the asymmetrical stairs, the sculptures in the garden?”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Todo se acentúa y se distorsiona. Ser madre primeriza es más psicodélico que tomarse un ácido. Todo es diferente. Los peligros se exageran, los olores se intensifican, la velocidad y los espacios crecen.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“[On a violent encounter with a boyfriend] Before I’ve even blinked, he’s snatched both my wrists, gripping them tightly together whilst dragging me back into the room.
[...]
I sense utter madness, blind rage and a very practiced hand, and decide with a calmness that is necessary for survival not to make a sound. Not to move a muscle. I go completely limp and acquiesce. You don’t argue with crazy. And I don’t want to give him one tiny reason to beat me to a pulp.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“I ignore him. I never look at him or speak to him and change my phone number. It’s the only way to deal with an obsessive.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“At last there is an unknown element back in my life. This is how it used to be. This is how I used to do things before the eighties and jobs and money and careers and Thatcher and marriage and mortgages. I was spontaneous, free, even reckless. Things often didn’t work out, but I felt alive. Painfully alive. For the last few years I’ve been feeling painfully dead. That drive, that lust for life that everyone expects you to have after surviving cancer, well it took ten years to arrive, but here it is. I don’t care what anyone thinks of me any more, I’m going to live life to the full, starting with New York.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Things can get out of hand quickly, especially with Sid around. I also decide never to wear heels again when I'm out with him. I go to Holt's in Camden Town and buy a pair of black Dr Martens. (You can get them in black, brown or maroon, the skinhead boys at school used to buy the brown ones and polish them with Kiwi Oxblood shoe polish — this gives them a deep reddish brown colour, much subtler than the flat red of the originals. They also keep them pristinely clean and polished at all times.) I wear my new boots with everything — dresses, tutus — it’s a great feeling to be able to run again. No other girl wears DMs with dresses, so I get a lot of funny looks. (Skinhead girls only wear DMs with Sta-Prest trousers. With their boring grey skirts, they west plain white or holey ecru tights and black patent brogues.) Bit I wear them all the time to clubs and pubs, it eventually catches on with other girls and I don’t look so odd.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
“Sid's quite awkward and talks in spurts like he thinks it's stupid to have a point of view, but he's got to communicate, so he forces the words out. I can see it's not that he's unsure of his opinions, he just thinks it's pathetic to have a strong opinion on any subject; to be intelligent means being able to see all sides.”
Source: Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys