Lydia Lunch Quotes

The American way of life, as I see it, is really the American way of death. Everything is determined by greed and the insatiable desire to be the richest and most powerful. And that desire is limitless.

The imperial, genocidal war machine never rests, so I don’t either.

I just prefer instrumental. I don’t need to hear what other people are singing. And if I need music as a backdrop to work or to think, I need to have that part of the brain clear – I don’t need people feeding their fantasies into my vision.

Just because my bank account hasn’t swelled astronomically I don’t consider myself any less of a success.

People have always asked me, ‘Haven‘t you wanted to sell out?’, and it’s like, who am I going to sell to?

If people could understand how much pleasure they could have by themselves, I think everyone would be a lot saner. I think that people really need a dose of quality time with one’s self.

If what I write is literature, I guess you’d better emphasize the ‘litter.’

I’m a total pleasure seeker. I pursue anything that satisfies me. I usually get it. I have specific needs and I know what they are so I can achieve satisfaction.

The biggest insult is that I’ve been called an exaggerator… I tell the truth as I know it. I don’t glamorize the nightmare and horror that I witness; I just digest it and spew it back, with venom.

I think it’s important to encourage gluttony in all its formats.

Politics are always involved, even in my love songs.

I’m like a one-woman protest machine.

Honesty works against you in the entertainment field. I try to be a journalist and a documentarian, but that doesn’t mean that people are going to embrace it at the moment. The point is I’m leaving the mark of my hysteria and the political hysteria, and that’s it… I can only do what I do.

You want positive, go elsewhere. Go find a different lie.

Living in Barcelona, I have my own little ghetto utopia. There are 3,000 ghost towns in Spain, and I’ve used the images of them a lot in my backdrops for my solo spoken-word stuff. The ghost towns could be from two buildings to 40 – things died out, or there were plagues, the roads don’t lead there, whatever.

To be in a band, at least according to the rules of rock in the 1970s, one must know how to play an instrument. But rather than waste time solving that problem, No Wavers ignored it. The point was simply to make music, not to learn how first.

The problem with music was always that the sound system often obliterated the words, and words, not music, have always been what I was about.

Because we have so much eye candy and mind candy, spending so much time trying to pay the rent, all of this conspires to keep us from thinking too hard or taking action from that. Our time is stolen. So much of our daily life is stolen.

If someone says ‘grunge‘ or ‘punk,’ you know what the sound is, but if you say ‘No Wave,’ it’s kind of mysterious. That was the most interesting part and should have been the most inspirational thing about it… here’s this collective sonic insanity, and none of it sounds anything alike.

I’m nihilistic, antagonistic, violent, horrible – but not obliterated, yet. I just refuse to be beaten down. I think it’s stubborness that keeps me going.

I’m completely optimistic – I know the end is coming!

The female format is a beautiful one in which to function. Foolhardy as it may be. I change my image all the time, it’s whatever suits me at the moment.