Billie Joe Armstrong Quotes

"Are you canadian? Oh, okay, `cause you`re sure as hell acting like one right now."

"All saints are gonna be there? Tre, you might get laid!"

"You think your life is tough? Try being a parent!"

"I`m not gonna say anything inspirational; I`m just gonna fucking swear a lot."

"School is practice for the future, and practice makes perfect, and nobodies perfect, so why practice?"

There`s nothing wrong with being a loser, it just depends on how good you are at it."

"I fucking hate Lynyrd Skynyrd, I`ve always hated Lynyrd Skynyrd. Fuckin` backwards ass hillbilly shit."

"B-I-L-L-I-E J-O-E. My real name is Billie Joe. And it`s southern, my moms from Oklahoma and that`s how I got the name."

"Well, you know, I look at myself in the morning and yes, yeah I-I am a God."

School is practice for future life, practice makes perfect and nobodys perfect, so why practice?

I`m very monogamous.

I sort of enjoy the fact that I`m misunderstood most of the time. That`s fine.

A punk concert isn`t fun without a pit.

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.

I`m not as depressed as I used to be. The Prozac`s working!

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.

Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality.

A lot of people, when they talk to me, I can`t wait for them to shut up. Like, shut up. you`re a moron. They have nothing to say, you know?

(on what he would like to do instead of music) I`ve done some producing, that I can do. But acting for me, I`m pretty sure I don`t know how to do that. I really don`t want to go through a process of trying to figure out how to do it. I think as soon as you start acting that realness of you that people love is gone because you`re pretending to be something else on screen.

Music - that`s been my education. There`s not a day that goes by that I take it for granted.

I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman.

Making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.

My mom was from Oklahoma, hence the name Billie Joe . . . It`s not William Joseph, it`s "just" Billie Joe.

If journalists ask you again and again about the same bands, you`ll end up saying you hate them just because you`re so fed up with being asked all those stupid questions.

I never thought that being obnoxious would get me where I am now.

I think it`s your own choice if you turn from an angry young man to a bitter, old bastard.

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`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 like LA. The majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn`t it sick?

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.

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 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.

A guy walks up to me and asks, "What`s Punk?". So I kick over a garbage can and say. "That`s punk!". So he kicks over the garbage can and says, "That`s Punk?", and I say, "No that`s trendy!"

Punk is always something that`s going to be with us and to try and explain that would be stupid at this point.

There`s nothing wrong with being a loser, it just depends on how good you are at it.

I hate celebrities. I really hate them.

School is practice for the future, and practice makes perfect. But nobody`s perfect, so why practice?

No one`s really happy anyway, it`s not human.

People are so damned afraid that one day they might wake up and discover that they`ve grown old.

We put everything we had into this record, just like we do with every other record that we make.

Our passion is our strength.

(on the media) You know, I`ve made it a point not to read a thing. From what people have been telling me, everything has been really positive. Hey, it`s the kids who are going to buy our records and they`re not going to read things written in Entertainment Weekly anyway. Critics never really want to like my band. I think they have this thing up their asses that we are a lesser band now. They feel we weren`t the originators of punk rock or we are not cool or whatever. So everything that comes from these people sounds somehow backhanded, like with the Spin piece. For a while, we were a best kept secret and for a long time none of these bigger magazines knew about Look Out Records or for that matter the Berkeley scene in general. At the time, I think that irritated them a bit. To them, if they don`t know about it, it obviously wasn`t cool enough to begin with.

The thing is, acoustic could be like a four-letter word to a lot of kids.

I never thought being obnoxious would get me where I am today.

Moshing and broken glass just don`t go together.

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.

Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle.

(on his female fans) They have got bad taste. I am not a good-looking guy.

Minority is about being an individual. It`s like you have to sift through the darkness to find your place and be that individual you want to be your entire life.

If I look at my old lyrics, they seem to be full of rage, but empty. There was an emptiness in my life.

Punk will never be dead to me. It`s my life. I can never just drop this lifestyle. It embodies me.

I write everything on a xylophone!

The most dramatic entrance for an autograph was probably when I was in Edmonton Alberta Canada or... whatever, and she jumped on my back and asked for the autograph. She was so cool and she said she wanted to be in a band... Well, whoever that was, I totally support you!

A guy walks up to me and asks `What`s Punk?`. So I kick over a garbage can and say `That`s punk!`. So he kicks over a garbage can and says `That`s Punk?`, and I say `No that`s trendy!

All great rock bands have a little dirt in their faces.

Punk Rock is dead and I fucking killed it.

All saints are going to be there? Tre might get laid.

Are you Canadian? Oh, ok, `cause you`re sure as hell acting like one right now.

We put the fun back into dusfunctional.

You can say it to my face, you might be picking yourself off the ground.

It`s all fun until someone gets hurt...then it`s hysterical.

I`m not going to say anything inspirational, I`m just going to fucking swear a lot.

School is practice for he future and practice makes perfect, and nobody`s perfect so why practice?

There`s nothing wrong with being a loser, it just depends how god you are at it.

I heard Davey Havak has a brand of eyeliner out now - it`s AFI-liner.

What has two thumbs speaks frech and likes blow jobs? Moi!

Let`s shake up some shit. That`s all you can do.

The day you become old is the day you are not looking for new experiences anymore.

You can`t live on planet rock 24/7, you have to get down and dirty and have some fun.

You have to search the absolute deamons of your soul to make a great record.

My goal is to be one of the biggest bands in the world and I have never been bashful about saying that.

I`ve been wearing thae same pants since the eventh grade.

It`s Mr. American Idiot to you.

They sound like Tre choking on a hairball. (In reference to Slipknot)

Honesty is the best part of any art form. If you don`t have that, your kidding yourself and your listener.

I`m the greatest guitar player in the world! I can play ****ing Heavy Metal god dammit!

I`m just the same idiot from Rodeo, CA that I was before Dookie came out. So if you see me in the street, come by and say hi. I guarantee you I`ll say hi back.

We (Green Day) can play anywhere at anytime.

One day we`ll (Green Day) either get kicked in the face, or get handed a big gold record. Either way it`s going to be really shocking.

There is not a band you can mention that we haven`t kicked their ass at one time or another.

History will tell if we were really a good band or just a one day fly.

Do I want to change the world with music? Well heck yeah I want to change the world to a certain extent yeah. It needs to be changed....it needs a kick in the ass.

Punk is always something that`s going to be with us and to try and explain that would be stupid at this point.