Billy Corgan Quotes

22 quotations by Billy Corgan

Your basic person wants to talk about material culture, internet culture. I think about God, cats, nature.

There's a difference between being a poseur and being someone who's so emotionally challenged they're kind of just doing their best to show you what they've got.

The deeper I get into my life as a musician, I'm discovering that it becomes less and less about other people, and more about what I want to do. And that's a good place to be.

Saturn Return is just the return of your planets to their original position.

My version, of course, is not this flag-waving, let's all get on the Jesus train and ride out of hell. I'm not that kind of guy. It's an embrace that life is good, worth living and yeah, it's not easy, but there are more pluses than minuses.

My pat line about the Cubs and payroll is that the amount of merchandise the Cubs would sell off a world series championship would more than cover for a big payroll.

James, that's a bad situation. I'm not saying it's not repairable, but it's pretty far. When you go from being in one of the best bands in the world to some cover band... as far as I'm concerned, he was playing down at the pub.

In the beginning, though, I have to admit that I did have a chip on my shoulder. I did want to prove everyone wrong. But after I went through the process and came out the other side, it wasn't about anyone else.

If I have resistance to something, it means there's something wrong. The resistance to me is a sign of fear.

I'm viewed as this weird, crippled character. But you got to take your lumps.

I'm sort of like a lame, single guy in a red sports car.

I'm definitely responsible for coming in with some basic chord changes, or ideas. Everybody in the band looks to me to come up with the basic seed, so it's not very productive to come in with nothing.

I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.

I was raised a Christian, but I wouldn't call myself a Christian now. I think when I was younger it was easier to focus on the negative, nihilist vision... this is sort of picking up on the other half of the body, which is God and white light.

I was brought up Roman Catholic. I'm not even baptized.

I walked away from going to church when I was 8. I didn't set foot in another church until I was 28.

I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan.

I met with a lot of resistance when I wanted our newest album to be a double CD. Many people thought I was going to ruin the band by doing it.

I feel like I'm always fighting not to repeat myself.

I didn't grow up with my mother, and so losing her for real was like, some sort of latent childhood, some sort of unresolved issue. When she left for real, it was sort of like, I was done.

I didn't find Jesus. He's been there the whole time.

For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.