Quotes by John Cooper Clarke - Page 2

From social pariah to King of the World? It's taken 45 years, so I've been able to adjust to it!
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Taken
Adjust
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They're very different things, a poem and a song, you wouldn't think they would be, but they are.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Different Things
Poem
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There is a certain sentimental vibe in my home town of Manchester, which you would sort of expect.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Home Town
Manchester
Sentimental
Vibe
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The greatest threat to any artist is surrounding themselves with people who love everything they do.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Love People Everything
Greatest Threat
Surrounding
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I've always lived all over the place, and left Manchester the minute I was old enough to steal a car.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Car
Left
Manchester
Minute
Old Enough
Steal
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If you don't like The Ramones, you don't like rock 'n'roll. They're like The Beach Boys without the sea.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Beach
Beach Boys
Ramones
Sea
Boy
Without
Rock
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When you're doing poetry like mine that rhymes, it's very easy to sound like a song that didn't work out!
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Song
Work Out
Mine
Rhymes
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Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Appearance
Betray
Grew
Homosexuality
Unmistakable
Sign
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I'm a great believer in the capsule wardrobe - a wardrobe where's there's a limited palate of black colours.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Believer
Palate
Great Believer
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I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Wisdom
Pushing
Received
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I've had a few jobs, but if you want to be a writer, you're better off getting a job that doesn't require that you do anything.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Jobs
Better Off
Writer
Require
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By the '80s, anything to do with punk was perceived as rancid. Me being known as the 'punk poet' meant my work and I plummeted.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Work Me Anything
Perceived
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I'm not fond of crowds. I'm no jittery neurotic, but I don't really want to be surrounded by a lot of people if I have a choice.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Crowds
Neurotic
Lot
Choice
Fond
Surrounded
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When the punk rock thing happened, I thought, 'Right, I have one chance here to be seen as part of some wider social phenomenon.'
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Phenomenon
Punk
Punk Rock
Wider
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As they used to say on Stingray, ‘Anything can happen in the next half hour’. I’ve always tried to live with that thought in mind.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Half
Mind
Next
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Where's the mileage in an autobiography? Anyone who writes one inevitably casts themselves as a hero, and I'm not about to do that.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Autobiography
Casts
Hero
Mileage
Anyone
Inevitably
Themselves
Writes
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I was too old to be a punk rocker. I was a mod, that's really the only youth tribe I ever belonged to - and even then, not for very long.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Punk
Belonged
Rocker
Tribe
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It was a tedious saying among hippies: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I was very much part of the problem.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Among
Hippies
Solution
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The main thing a poem ought to be is musical. It should be rhythmic. You should hear it as a musical piece in your head as you're writing it.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Main Thing
Poem
Rhythmic
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I got to play The Vortex in London with the Buzzcocks, the Fall, me and Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers. That was a serious Manchester night.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Fall
London
Manchester
Serious
Vortex
Johnny
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My look was based on the Madison Avenue guy who's just lost his job. Ivy League suit a bit scuzzed up, an outgrown layer cut and five o'clock shadow.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Ivy
Ivy League
Madison
Madison Avenue
Shadow
Avenue
Based
Cut
Layer
Suit
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Not everyone is prepared for fame, not even at the level I got it. One minute you're just a face in the crowd, next minute everyone wants a piece of you.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
One Minute
Crowd
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The first time I heard rock'n'roll on a big sound system would have been at a fairground at the seaside. That's a hell of a sensory experience right there.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Sensory
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Maybe there are luckier people than me, but I don't know who that would be. I feel pretty lucky. I've had a nice life - I don't know how I could be luckier.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Nice Life
Life Me People
Luckier
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Well, I've obviously been a great source of inspiration to the academic population of Salford! They're citing me as a major contribution to their upward trajectory!
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Academic
Citing
Contribution
Inspiration
Population
Trajectory
Great Source
Major
Obviously
Upward
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I enjoy gigging in industrial towns. It seems to be where I go down the best. Somewhere where they have a history of manufacturing, they're my favourite places to play.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Favourite
Manufacturing
Towns
Somewhere
Industrial
Places
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You know how the Marvel Comics superheroes formed themselves into the Justice League of America - Batman, Flash and the rest. Why did Superman join? He never needed any help.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Flash
Batman
Formed
Join
Marvel
Superheroes
Superman
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Fame just ain't a natural situation. But I shouldn't have worried because everyone thought I was a bit famous even before I'd done anything; people just assumed I was famous.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Assumed
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There've been lots of positive changes in the city since I worked at Salford Tech in the seventies, and I'm pleased to be known as Salford's Bard and to have helped put it on the map.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Seventies
Map
Pleased
Tech
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Everybody that read one of my poems went off and wrote poetry. They said that about the Velvets, didn't they? They didn't sell many records, but everybody that saw them formed a band.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Formed
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There are only three things that stop me sleeping: hunger, the odd bad dream and cramp in the arches of my feet - it's crippling, as if somebody's trying to tie your foot in a reef knot.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Dream
Feet
Hunger
Odd
Cramp
Crippling
Foot
Sleeping
Tie
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I ain't got a credit card, a mobile phone or a computer. Call me sentimental. I think that's a whole world of trouble I ain't got no business setting foot in. And you know what? It feels good.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Credit Card
Mobile
Sentimental
Setting
Good Business World
Card
Foot
Business Good World
No Business
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I write with pen and paper. I don't have a mobile or computer, because I know how great they are. If I did, I'd never leave the house - you'd find me in six months, dead under a pile of pizza boxes.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Boxes
Computer
Mobile
Months
Paper
Pizza
Six
Great Me Dead
Dead
Leave
Pen
Pile
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Poets are supposed to be underappreciated, don't you know? There is always a strange reaction to those who become successful in their own lifetime, and so I always felt lucky that I made the living I did out of it.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Lifetime
Poets
Reaction
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At the beginning, there was no chance I'd get published so I thought I'd give it a go live. I had to perform in rock band places and working men's clubs, where you wouldn't expect to find poetry. I ploughed a lonely furrow.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Band
Clubs
Lonely
Perform
Expect
No Chance
Published
Rock Band
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I went to what can only be described as a slum school in Salford - rough and full of trainee punks - but I was very lucky in that I had one inspiring teacher, John Malone, who gave the whole class an interest in romantic poetry.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Inspiring
Teacher
Class
Lucky
Rough
School
Whole
Full
Gave
John
Slum
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Lyrics became important for a while in the late Seventies. Patti Smith was a poet and a rock star, as much one as the other, the distinctions were a bit blurred and then you get swept up in it. Punk poet, it's a good enough term.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Late
Poet
Punk
Rock Star
Seventies
Term
Bit
Became
Blurred
Star
Distinctions
Lyrics
Rock
Patti Smith
Smith
Swept
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Literally' - I'm not having it; people can't go around saying 'literally.' Otherwise, what's literal? There's not another word for literally: if it isn't figurative or metaphorical, what is it? It's literal: there's no substitute.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Literal
Metaphorical
Substitute
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If you want to know why the coast is such an inspirational place, ask Herman Melville, Jack London, Nordhoff and Hall, Robert Louis Stevenson or Joseph Conrad. It's a glimpse of eternity. It invites rumination, the relentless whisper of the tide against the shore.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Inspirational
Coast
Eternity
Glimpse
Invites
London
Relentless
Shore
Ask
Against
Louis
Why
Hall
Jack
Joseph
Place
Robert
Stevenson
Tide
Whisper
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Find a poet whose style you like, emulate that style, then deal with things that you know about - don't waste your time looking for your own style.' I wish I could remember who told me that, because I'd like to congraulate him. I've emulated all the old guys - Tennyson, Alexander Pope.
John Cooper Clarke / Poet
Emulate
Pope
Waste
Time Your Me
Time Me Remember
Alexander
Whose
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John Cooper Clarke Quotes - Page 2

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