John Cooper Clarke Quotes

Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best John Cooper Clarke Quotes. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!

1
I had a million jobs before I managed to make a living out of poetry.
John Cooper Clarke
2
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
3
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
4
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
5
Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.
John Cooper Clarke
6
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
7
I’m not giving away sartorial secrets but the trousers I wear cost 19 quid.
John Cooper Clarke
8
I love singing. I’m a great singer.
John Cooper Clarke
9
When you write poetry you are always addressing the world somehow.
John Cooper Clarke
10
I’ve always lived all over the place, and left Manchester the minute I was old enough to steal a car.
John Cooper Clarke
11
I love the Arctic Monkeys!
John Cooper Clarke
12
I wish I could drive.
John Cooper Clarke
13
It took me 30 years for people to consider me an overnight success.
John Cooper Clarke
14
I quite like cooking, but not to the extent that I look on a kitchen as a domain.
John Cooper Clarke
15
There is a certain sentimental vibe in my home town of Manchester, which you would sort of expect.
John Cooper Clarke
16
I eat like a pig. Tripe is the only thing I won’t eat.
John Cooper Clarke
17
I don’t go looking for new fads.
John Cooper Clarke
18
I love talking about anything, except for myself.
John Cooper Clarke
19
I don’t have secrets, my life’s an open book.
John Cooper Clarke
20
Me, I listen to all kinds of music, really.
John Cooper Clarke
21
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
22
The very pointlessness of a sea walk is it’s attractiveness to me.
John Cooper Clarke
23
Most cities are the same.
John Cooper Clarke
24
I would describe my style of dress as careful.
John Cooper Clarke
25
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
26
I’ve never met a happy atheist.
John Cooper Clarke
27
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
28
My favourite writers are columnists.
John Cooper Clarke
29
The ’80s were a lost decade.
John Cooper Clarke
30
I love being on my bike, but I don’t consider that a sport: it’s too pleasant.
John Cooper Clarke
31
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
32
Happiness is the target one only has to aim at in order to miss.
John Cooper Clarke
33
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
34
I’m a great reader of credits; I never leave the cinema before they finish.
John Cooper Clarke
35
I never saw a painting that would not be improved by the addition of tropical fish.
John Cooper Clarke
36
I’m not much of a team player when it comes to making records, I’ve got to say.
John Cooper Clarke
37
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
38
My dad was an electrical engineer.
John Cooper Clarke
39
A much underrated garment, the jegging: they never need ironing and they hold their colour.
John Cooper Clarke
40
Being unapologetic means never having to say you’re sorry.
John Cooper Clarke
41
It amazes me there are movies about writers… such inert, uneventful lives.
John Cooper Clarke
42
I’ve got a speech impediment.
John Cooper Clarke
43
My declining allure is a source of great sadness to me.
John Cooper Clarke
44
I’d like to be rich, but without all the downside of fame.
John Cooper Clarke
45
I’ve been kept from honest employment for a long, long time now. Thank God!
John Cooper Clarke
46
I wanted to get rich, like anyone from my background.
John Cooper Clarke
47
Dutch food is terrible, I think. What sort of person starts the day with egg and cheese?
John Cooper Clarke
48
I’m not one of nature’s campers. I’m not even a glamper.
John Cooper Clarke
49
The only casual item I own is a Levi’s jacket.
John Cooper Clarke
50
To approach a poem as if it is a puzzle to be understood is to miss the point.
John Cooper Clarke
51
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
52
When I sit down to eat, the greatest spice of all is hunger.
John Cooper Clarke
53
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
54
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
55
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
56
I crack myself up. Even I don’t know what I’m going to say next.
John Cooper Clarke
57
No one wants to be a source of anxiety to everybody they know.
John Cooper Clarke
58
Doris Day was the perfect woman.
John Cooper Clarke
59
You can always find something better to do than writing when you’re at home.
John Cooper Clarke
60
People who believe in God are happier than those who don’t.
John Cooper Clarke
61
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
62
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
63
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
64
I’m dead fussy about food: I don’t eat junk.
John Cooper Clarke
65
The greatest threat to any artist is surrounding themselves with people who love everything they do.
John Cooper Clarke
66
I’m a great believer in the capsule wardrobe – a wardrobe where’s there’s a limited palate of black colours.
John Cooper Clarke
67
The one thing I got right was that I already looked like a punk when punk arrived.
John Cooper Clarke
68
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
69
If I’d have known how much fun fatherhood would be, I would have started way earlier than 45.
John Cooper Clarke
70
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