Iggy Pop Quotes

"I became Iggy because I had a sadistic boss at a record store. I'd been in a band called the Iguanas. And when this boss wanted to embarrass and demean me, he'd say, 'Iggy, get me a coffee, light.'"

"What did Christ really do? He hung out with hard-drinking fishermen."

"'Punk rock' is a word used by dilettantes and heartless manipulators about music that takes up the energies, the bodies, the hearts, the souls, the time and the minds of young men who give everything they have to it."

"Well, I don't use the toilet much to pee in. I almost always pee in the yard or the garden, because I like to pee on my estate."

"Nobody understands me, I'm really sensitive."

"I find it hard to focus looking forward. So I look backward."

"I have no idea why a guy would bring a jar of peanut butter to a concert."

"Stages are getting higher and higher, and I'm getting older and older."

"I never believed that U2 wanted to save the whales. I don't believe that The Beastie Boys are ready to lay it down for Tibet."

"Something I like to do a lot is just sit by water when there's a current and just stare into the water. I don't fish, I don't hunt, I don't scuba, I don't spear, don't boat, don't play basketball or football - I excel at staring into space. I'm really good at that."

"I like music that's more offensive. I like it to sound like nails on a blackboard, get me wild."

"Basically, I'm a musical vocalist, but I do voiceover stuff as a sideline, like plumbing or something."

"She looked at me penetratingly. So I suppose you can figure out what happened next."

"It's more fun to look at an old picture of me than it is to look at a new one sometimes. Although, I still wear a dress pretty well."

"I stare at myself in the mirror and I think, 'Wow, I'm really great-looking.'... I think I'm the greatest, anyway."

"Second only to the sea, the Miami sky has been the greatest comfort in my life past 50. On a good day, when the wind blows from the south, the light here is diffuse and forgiving."

"Miami's not anybody's poor cousin. It's an aspiration to live in this town, not something you have to do to promote yourself like some of the larger cities."

"I have a hot memory, but I know I've forgotten many things, too, just squashed things in favor of survival."

"If I don't terrorize, I'm not Pop."

"Look, you're here to see me, and I can't go on until my dealer is here, and he's waiting to be paid, so give me some money so I can fix up, and then you'll get your show."

"Well, the stuff that has become more commercial doesn't have any edge."

"My parents wanted to light my artistic candle. But over time, the definition of 'the arts' began to stretch. And as I got older, they suddenly realized, Oh, my God, we're the parents of Iggy Pop."

"My mom was a saint. She taught me to be terminally nice."

"The more walking-around money I have, the less I walk around."

"I'm a travel enthusiast."

"I'm a little bit damaged in about 15 different ways, and it's been nice that no particular damaged area has become a major issue. I'm a more than moderately healthy 65-year-old male who has gotten away with a lot of stuff."

"I was who I was in high school in accordance with the rules of conduct for a normal person, like obeying your mom and dad. Then I got out of high school and moved out of the house, and I just started, for lack of a better term, running free."

"I like semi-torn-down places where I could get nestled in and get something done without anyone bothering me."

"A lot of young musicians get the money at the wrong time. They get it for something they don't feel great about, and it'll make you feel so bad it'll destroy you and kill you."

"If you give a good performance, something that gets some feeling across to people, that's such a rare gift. It's underestimated at this point in history, when the music biz is inevitably turning into a kind of politics."