You don't write on tour; it takes all your concentrating to make the gig - that's survival technique. Afterwards, you run around town to find interesting hipsters and go to all the interesting spots. You got to go to every hotspot until everything has closed down.

Joe Strummer

Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'

Joe Strummer

rocks essence attitude

Don't forget you're alive. 'Cause sometimes when you walk around the city and you're in a bad mood, you can think, hey, wait a minute, we're alive! We don't know what the next second will bring and what a fantastic thing this is. This can get easily forgotten in the routine of life, and that's something I'm trying to bring to my attention at all times. Don't forget you're alive. We're not dead, you know. This is the greatest thing.

Joe Strummer

cities waiting thinking

Everyone has got to realise you can't hold onto the past if you want any future. Each second should lead to the next one.

Joe Strummer

next want past

When I started, they told me I only needed 3 chords and the truth... It turned out I could manage with 2 and some vague ideas.

Joe Strummer

chords needed ideas

I'd like to say that people... people can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there'll be people in it. And it's the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they're not on the world... It's time to take that humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time... Think on that. Without people you're nothing.

Joe Strummer

mean country thinking

In fact, punk rock means exemplary manners to your fellow human beings.

Joe Strummer

rocks mean facts

The way you get a better world is, you don't put up with substandard anything.

Joe Strummer

way world

I don't have any other message than don't forget you are alive

Joe Strummer

forget-you alive messages

Don't write slogans, write truths.

Joe Strummer

slogans writing

We`re all going to have to learn to live together and develop a greater tolerance and get rid off whatever our fathers gave us in the way of hatred between nations.

Joe Strummer

tolerance hatred father

When you blame yourself, you learn from it. If you blame someone else, you don't learn nothing, cause hey, it's not your fault, it's his fault, over there.

Joe Strummer

blame-someone hey faults

A lot of the time I'm semi-insane, but there is a slight bit of intelligence there.

Joe Strummer

bits insane

The future is unwritten.

Joe Strummer

unwritten reality

The toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.

Joe Strummer

being-honest tough honest

I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all.

Joe Strummer

dont-care i-dont-care care

Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed

Joe Strummer

authority power age

Strummer's Law: No input, no output.

Joe Strummer

output input law

My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.

Joe Strummer

trying needs thinking

People can change anything they want to, and that means everything in the world.

Joe Strummer

mean people world

If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that didn't make you feel like smashing up the kitchen and strangling the cat.

Joe Strummer

kitchen cat nice