Lemmy Quotes

People don't read any more. It's a sad state of affairs. Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it?" [Interview in The Independent, 15 October 2005]

Apparently people don't like the truth, but I do like it; I like it because it upsets a lot of people. If you show them enough times that their arguments are bullshit, then maybe just once, one of them will say, 'Oh! Wait a minute - I was wrong.' I live for that happening. Rare, I assure you

A Short Alternative Medical Dictionary Definitions courtesy of Dr Lemuel Pillmeister (also known as Lemmy) Addiction - When you can give up something any time, as long as it's next Tuesday. Cocaine - Peruvian Marching Powder. A stimulant that has the extraordinary effect that the more you do, the more you laugh out of context. Depression - When everything you laugh at is miserable and you can't seem to stop. Heroin - A drug that helps you to escape reality, while making it much harder to cope when you are recaptured. Psychosis - When everybody turns into tiny dolls and they have needles in their mouths and they hate you and you don't care because you have THE KNIFE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? You've lived your life. No point wishing you could change it.

In my life so far, I have discovered that there are really only two kinds of people: those who are for you, and those who are against you. Learn to recognize them, for they are often and easily mistaken for each other.

It seems that our brave new world is becoming less tolerant, spiritual and educated than it ever was when I was young.

I don't see why there should be a point where everyone decides you're too old. I'm not too old, and until I decide I'm too old I'll never be too fucking old.

As you go through life's rich tapestry, you realize that most people you meet aren't fit to shine your shoes. It's a sad fact, but it's true. A good friend is someone who'd hide you if you were on the run for murder. How many of them do you know?

The only interesting thing about religion is how many people it's slaughtered. Communism and Nazism are religions as well, make no mistake about it.

If you didn't do anything that wasn't good for you it would be a very dull life. What are you gonna do? Everything that is pleasant in life is dangerous. Have you noticed that? I'd like to find the bastard that thought that one up.

If you're going to be a fucking rock star go be one. People don't want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet. You want to see somebody you'd never meet in ordinary life.

Home is in here [tapping temple]. Where you live is just a geographical preference.

Death is an inevitability, isn't it? You become more aware of that when you get to my age. I don't worry about it. I'm ready for it. When I go, I want to go doing what I do best. If I died tomorrow, I couldn't complain. It's been good.

Motörhead is nothing if not democratic, but I don't think it's fair to be waving your dick around when people are minding their own business and might not want to see it.

Born to lose. Live to win.

That was a great time, the summer of '71 - I can't remember it, but I'll never forget it!

Integrity is everything to me. I will not die ashamed. I will live on my deathbed knowing that I gave it my best shot, and everything else is meaningless to me.

This entire generation seems to have become pussies, you know? Nobody seems to enjoy themselves much anymore.They are all knocking each other down for enjoying themselves.

My ethic is: ‘Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.’ You can be as careful as you want, but you’re going to die anyway, so why not have fun?

People who work in a factory, right, or some awful fucking mind-numbing job like that - ‘cause I worked in a factory, I know what it’s like; it’s fucking awful, yeah? Most people have to do that kind of job that they hate every day of their lives. Can you imagine what that must be like? You have to submerge your intellect completely, right, and just, y’know, che cha, y’know, and all that. So, at the weekend, they want to hear something that tears the heart out of ‘em and gives it back better.

...what happened in New York and Washington is the same thing that England and America did to Berlin every day for three years during World War II -- and Germany did the same thing to England.

ALPHA-60: Your name is written "Ivan Johnson," but it is pronounced "Lemmy Caution," Secret Agent Zero Zero Three of the Outlands. You are a threat to the security of Alphaville. CAUTION: I refuse to become what you call "normal." ... ALPHA-60: You cannot escape. The door is locked. CAUTION: Try to stop me, pal.

We do things that we never thought we were capable of in order to protect what we love.

...the Beatles were hard men too. Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia--a hard, sea-farin' town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo's from the Dingle, which is like the f***ing Bronx. The Rolling Stones were the mummy's boys--they were all college students from the outskirts of London. They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability. I did like the Stones, but they were never anywhere near the Beatles--not for humour, not for originality, not for songs, not for presentation. All they had was Mick Jagger dancing about. Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always s**t on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.

It seemed almost sacrilegious to spoil the silence that followed a perfect song.

I made more money out of writing those four songs for Ozzy than I made out of fifteen years of Motörhead – ludicrous, isn’t it!

To love a child is the greatest terror there is. It’s a lifetime of worrying yourself sick over every move they make. It is a torture and an immense joy all at once.

I like girls. That’s the only reason I’m in the music business – I discovered you could get women to take their clothes off if you had a guitar. And they come off a lot faster if you can play it.

We are Motörhead. And we play rock and roll.

If there is a God he hasn’t been paying attention. He should retire and hand over to a younger man, because he’s making a real bollocks of everything.

We were a blues band, really. Although we played it at a thousand miles an hour, it was recognizable as blues – at least to us it was; probably it wasn’t to anybody else.

People don’t become better when they’re dead; you just talk about them as if they are.

Her favorite thing about God was that He was the one person she was allowed to ask questions. In fact, this privilege delighted her so much that she hardly even minded that nobody answered her.

So far, in eight years of life, Nori had a collection of twelve ribbons, one for each time she’d been able to make her mother happy.

I left the Rocking Vicars, thinking I was going to be a star in my own right immediately. Everything was going to be wonderful and huge women would get a hold of me and do things to me with raw carrots – you know, shit like that. Of course, it didn’t happen quite that way.

Chicks used to steal food out of the fridge from their parents to feed us and shit – kind of like bringing a meal to the convicted prisoner on the run. They liked the drama of it, and we liked the food.

you just have to keep going and everything will sort itself out.

The only time I've seen any rebellion was in the fifties, sixties and early seventies. The rest of it you can keep.

Alice’s gray eyes were knowing. “Oh, my dear girl. You can’t shut yourself away from love forever. For you are love embodied and it will never stop trying to find you.

I told that to Lemmy [Kilmister (Motörhead, ex-Hawkwind)] and he said, “Yeah, well I used to suck the meat out of raw sausages.” It was like a contest for who could be more metal.

It was horribly uncomfortable to feel time nudging her forward, tactlessly, in total disregard of whether she was prepared or not.

I feel this life is Sorrowful and unbearable Though I cannot flee away Since I am not a bird

Howard’s eating habits, incidentally, leave quite a bit to be desired – he eats all these terrible vegetarian things, fruit and nuts. That shit’s not healthy! Human beings are carnivores – just look at our teeth! Our digestive systems are not made to handle vegetarian food. It makes you fart all the time, and you get intestinal flora. Vegetarianism is unrealistic – that’s why cows have four stomachs and we have one. Think about it. (Hi, Howard!) And don’t forget – Hitler was a vegetarian!

It’s not his girlfriend. It’s Princess Toadstool. And it’s not a gorilla,” I stress. “It’s Lemmy Koopa of the evil Koopa clan. And baby, as usual, you’re missing the point.” “Please enlighten me.” “The whole point of Super Mario Bros. is that it mirrors life.

She would curl herself onto the couch and listen to him making paintings out of sound. And each piece was a different picture. In her mind’s eye, she could see a garden full of trees with white leaves and a fountain with blush-pink petals floating in the clear water—that was a concerto. The volta: scarlet and plum-colored ribbons winding around each other, battling for dominance. A requiem . . . a lone horse walking down a dimly lit cobbled road, looking for a rider that had died long ago. From these dead foreigners whose names she was slowly growing accustomed to, Nori was learning what it was to live a thousand lifetimes of joy and sorrow without ever leaving this house.

A day later, when a pair of dark wolves came sniffing around, they found him. Lemmy couldn’t help but giggle with delight as they tore him apart and ate him. ***

Love can be weakened by time or forgotten for the sake of another. Love can disappear, without a cause or an explanation, like a thief crept in and stole it in the night.

While my husband sleeps, while my children are upstairs in their nursery, I can be the selfish woman I was always meant to be for a few short moments in the day.

Safe sex, safe clothing, safe hairspray, safe ozone layer,…too late! Everything that’s been achieved in the history of mankind has been achieved by not being safe.” – Lemmy Kilmister, Mötorhead

Prince's First Posthumous Tweet: “when u go on social media today please make sure to make my death all about u k thanks” (Retweeted from Bowie who retweeted from Lemmy who retweeted from Michael Jackson who is actually still alive and on Twitter)

She shrugged. “I like rain.” He laughed scornfully. “That’s ridiculous. Nobody likes rain. Nobody ever says, ‘I wish it weren’t so sunny today.’” She lowered her eyes. “You can’t hear sunshine from the attic,” she said quietly. “And it’s always so quiet. In the summers, especially, with no lessons, and when Akiko-san doesn’t come, it’s . . . it’s empty. Like there’s nobody else but you in the whole world. But when it rained, I could always hear it on the roof, and then I remembered that I wasn’t, you know . . .” Alone. Akira blinked.

She had brief snippets where she could see herself through his eyes. And there was so much beauty there it brought her to tears. All her life she’d felt like an elephant lumbering among delicate things. But in his honest gaze, she was no longer the elephant. She was the swan.

Mama wants to name him after her father, and my husband wants to name him after his. They want to saddle him from the cradle with the ghosts of dead men. As if his burden is not heavy enough. But I will name him myself. He is their miracle, their heir, but he is my son. And I will name him Akira.

it

If you think you’re too old for rock ’n’ roll, then you are.

It seemed so deeply silly that she had ever cared about the new dresses her grandmother gave her from time to time. They were just objects—bolts of dyed fabric. They could never be enough to fill a life.

So I peeked under the tent-flap and there was Tommy, stark naked with his clothes under his one arm, running like a maniac. Following closely behind was a furious Guide mistress beating him on the head with his own arm!

Zou je geen medelijden krijgen met alles wat normaal is?' verzucht Rosa. Zij wendt haar gezicht af en drukt zich tegen Lemmy aan. 'Je zo bedreigd te moeten voelen door alles wat een beetje afwijkt!

Po našem působení byly dvě míle pobřeží k nepoznání. Ale byla to jen nevinná hra, děti přeci vyvádějí všechno možné a koneckonců proč taky ne? Děti sa takhle prostě baví, vytáčejí dospělé a dávají jim zabrat; co by jiného měly dělat?

I remember he was asking me for advice and I was giving it to him. He’s always done the exact opposite of what I’ve said, which I think is fundamentally sound.

If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent.

She preferred, as she did with most things in life, to simply have faith. It was considerably less complicated.

I knew that Ryan could care less about strippers, but there was no way he was going to ride in a hot van across the Sonoran Desert when the alternative was to belly up at the bar next to Lemmy from Motörhead.

It’s a lifetime of worrying yourself sick over every move they make. It is a torture and an immense joy all at once.

Her favorite thing about God was that He was the one person she was allowed to ask questions.

The line-up was Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, us, Metal Church and Dangerous Toys. The Metal Church and Dangerous Toys guys were the best company – you never saw Alice (he was generally on his bus watching Japanese splatter movies) or anyone in Judas Priest, but I’d always run into some of the guys from the other bands somewhere. Usually at a strip club. Every city we went to, we’d all go down to the local strip club, and there they’d be. Nowadays,

She wished her mother were still alive so that she could ask her how to manage being a smart woman in a family where men did not value such a thing.

I often wonder why I think I know what's best for everyone else when so much of the time I haven't a clue as to what's good for myself.

Basically, Sam Phillips recorded Bill Haley, Johnny Cash, and all those other Memphis guys; Chuck Berry played the top two strings; Elvis appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show above the waist; the Beatles made all the girls squirm by singing about wanting to hold their “hands”; Ray Davies got lost in a sunset; Pete Townshend smashed his guitar; Brian Wilson heard magic in his head and made it come out of a studio; the Rolling Stones urinated on a garage door; and then (skipping a bit) you’ve got Joey Levine and Chapman-Chinn and Mott the Hoople and Iggy and the Runaways and KISS and the Pink Fairies and Rick Nielsen and Jonathan Richman and Johnny Ramone and Lemmy and the Young brothers and Cook and Jones and Pete Shelley and Feargal Sharkey and Rob Halford … and Foghat. You get what I’m saying. It didn’t happen in a vacuum, but it did happen, and now here we are in the aftermath.

Customs all over the world still search me first. I mean, why? Do they think dope smugglers look like me? I don’t think so. And how long have they had to absorb this information? The dope smugglers are the [well-dressed] people with briefcases going right behind me. And they still haven’t got the brains to figure that out. They say, “Everyone with long hair is a drug smuggler.” Well good fucking luck.

If at first you don't succeed - cheat" Lemmy Kilmister.

Since I was about twenty-five, nothing changed, except I got smarter and wiser and things have an effect on you. But I never thought I was any older, really. It was just a very long twenty-five!

Though it often eluded her, she liked sleep. It presented her with something that her waking moments perpetually denied her: freedom.

Meekness was not weakness. And boldness was not strength.

The ocean seemed never-ending. But somehow, somewhere, it did end. Perhaps it was the same with her grief.

Tokyo is mine and I am hers. I am certain of this, as I am certain of most things. -Akira

You can’t hear sunshine from the attic

From that day forward, Agnes went everywhere with her. When Nori ate, Agnes went below the seat. When she was in her lessons, Agnes sat atop the piano. Her smile was stitched on—so even when Nori faltered and Akira winced in distaste, Agnes kept smiling.

If you think you are too old to rock 'n roll, then you are.

You can't have everything -- where would you put it?

You shine so brightly it blinded me at first. Truly, you do. When I first saw you, I thought you were golden.” Will’s lips peeled back from his teeth. “And now?” She stood up. “And now I see that you are like enamel. You shine on the outside, but on the inside, there is nothing. I actually feel sorry for you. For I may be a half-breed and a bastard girl, but I am not so sad that I need to steal other people’s light to fill the hole in myself.

You've never seen a politician who's kept his promise. You've never saw a politician who wasn't a liar.....They want you to do what they say because their word is better than that other guy...It's not!...All politicians are assholes.

Nori ebbe un attimo di esitazione. Aveva solo qualche secondo. Non le veniva in mente niente da dire a quella donna. Erano una puttana e la sua signora, una principessa decaduta e una pezzente arricchita, una serva e una padrona. In quel momento però non sembravano più nulla di tutto ciò. Erano solo due donne a testa bassa contro il vento.

Další věc, kterou lidé nechápou, je moje sbírka nacistických suvenýru, jež se začala dost rozrůstat, poté co jsem se přestěhoval do Státu. Předměty z druhé světové války mezi lidmi kolovaly, co si pamatuju. Koneckonců jsem se narodil v roce, kdy válka skončila, a lidé si tehdy domu nosili nejrůznější věci jako suvenýry. Když jsem přijel do Ameriky, měl jsem jednu dýku a dvě medaile, možná nějakou vlajku a železný kříž, to bylo všechno. Jako s každým koníčkem, čím více se do něho člověk zabere, tím zajímavějším se stává. Takže teď mám obrovskou sbírku předmětu z doby hitlerovského Německa – dýky, medaile, vlajky, všechno možné. Tohle všechno připomíná něco, co se skutečně stalo, je to zkrátka historie (z větší části, neboť nacismus stále existuje, byť jen okrajově). Nechápu lidi, kteří si myslí, že pokud budou něco ignorovat, tak to zmizí. To se teda pletou, jakmile něco ignorujete, akorát to nabývá na síle. Evropa ignorovala Hitlera dvacet let. V roce 1936 jsme ho mohli porazit: francouzská armáda ho mohla vyhnat z Porýní a byl by vyřízený. Vlastní lidé by ho svrhli. Ale Francouzi utekli, jako vždy a nechali ho tam napochodovat. Výsledkem bylo vyvraždění čtvrtiny světa! Navíc si vezměte, že Hitler byl nekuřák, abstinent a vegetarián, nosil oblek a měl krátké vlasy. V kterékoliv restauraci v Americe by ho byli obsloužili, na rozdíl od Jesseho Owense, hrdiny olympiády z roku 1936.

Who knows why people split up? Dirty knickers on the bathroom shower rail once too often, these things get huge, don’t they?

The only interesting thing about religion is how many people it's slaughtered.

I have always been mystified by how one person can judge another based solely on the color of their skin.

Why is it that if you can't get enough sex you're thought of as a sex addict, but if you can't get enough money you're considered to be a successful financier?