Morrissey Chemical World


SELF











"In reality, I'm really all of those very boring things - shy, and retiring. But when one is questioned about the group, one becomes terribly, terribly defensive and almost loud. But in daily life, I'm almost too retiring for comfort."
–March 1984

"I remember for a long time feeling totally charmless and unhandsome and I know there are many others who feel the same way. It's time that all those people moved in on this whole shebang and if necessary pretend to have charm. For too long this sphere of entertainment has been dominated by the big mouths and the small minds."
–Nov. 1983

"As my education virtually amounted to nothing - we were instilled with the fact that everything was hopeless - I completely immersed myself in films. Those people replaced the friends I never had."
–Nov. 1983

"People thought I was absolutely fake because I really tried to think about things in a manner which didn't seem to appeal to the average person. It's just like the brow-beaten artist, really."
–Feb. 1984

"I'm very interested in the idea of being alone, and people feeling isolated - which is the way I think most people feel at the end of the day. I think it's a general condition under which people live, and i often feel that it has something to do with death. Because one is ultimately alone when one dies."
–March 1984

"I just live a terribly solitary life, without any human beings involved whatsoever. And that to me is almost a perfect situation."
–March 1984

"I've acquired contact lenses in the past few months, they've been a strange rebirth for me. Now I think everybody should wear them, whether they need them or not."
–Nov. 1984

"I don't trust a living human being. I find most people totally repugnant, so no wonder I have no social life!"
–1984

"Other people's children bore me, but if one has a child of one's own flesh and blood, one's attitude changes. Lots of little Morrisseys running around could save the world."
–Nov. 1984

"I'm a severe critic - severe upon other people. If a person has a hole in their sock, they crumble before me."
–Nov. 1984

"People who dislike the group say that I'm terribly arrogant, but those people don't interest me. I'm really only concerned with people who actually like the group, who never say I'm arrogant. They always say I'm quite confident, which sounds a little more appealing to the ears. But I can't see any reason to be shy about the whole thing. I'm terribly proud of this group."
–June 1984

"There's an hour of every single day, a silent hour, where I pray for another world. But I'm not enduring it. The business side depresses me intensely, but I battle on. I feel I'm having the last laugh."
–1984

"I'm quite intrigued by friendships and I'd like to have some. I think that would be an entrancing experience, friendship. That would be enough. I'm not greedy."
–1984

"I often feel I don't want to live much longer and, again this will incite guffaws and gasps because it's such a strong thing to say, but if I'm allowed to be honest about it, I don't want to live much longer. There are certain things that enlighten life but there's such a price to pay. I do feel I'd be disappointed if I got to 50; it would show such a lack of resolve."
–1984

"I'm certainly not the life and soul of the party type. I like to sit quietly in the corner and do a lot of listening. My shyness totally disappears when I go on stage, though. I suppose that's why I enjoy live performances."
–Sept. 1984

"I was terribly embarrassed when I fell off the stage in New York."
–Nov. 1984

"I never go out to eat. I have an embarrasingly restricted diet - it's literally yoghurts and apples, nothing else."
–Sept. 1984

"I've never had a social life and I don't have one now. Things haven't changed that much."
–Sept. 1984

"I will die for what I say."
–March 1985

"I'm not a rock 'n' roll character. I despise drugs, I despise cigarettes, I'm celibate and I live a very serene lifestyle. But I'm also making very strong statements lyrically, and this is very worrying to authoritarian figures."
–March 1985

"I look ill, don't I?"
–Jan. 1985

"I lie a lot - it's really useful."
–1985

"There are many people out there who are Smiths devotees who are quite willing to accept the fact, and expect, that I will be found dangling from some banisters or swinging from the rafters in some darkened church."
–Aug. 1985

"I want to be used."
–Oct. 1985

"I'm selfish in a positive way. Self-preservation and all that. I do send off money to the Blue Cross, animal refugees, things like that."
–1985

"About once a year I burst into tears and I just can't stop. I get the impression that I should do it more often but because I don't everything seems to come out at once."
–1985

"I really like 3.30 in the afternoon when the sky is overcast and there's thunder and there's rain and you're watching the Monday Matinée and you've go a nice big solid piece of toast in front of you. That to me is life lived to its fullest."
–1985

"If you've got a grain of intellect you run the risk of making your critics seem dull. So people feel the need to adopt the most violent attitude, even when they like you. So I don't mind too much, I know what's happening."
–June 1985

"People think that in some former life I was a debauched rugby player, or that I've got a stream of illegitimate children cluttering up some home on a hillside."
–June 1985

"I am vain. If someone punches me in the face and I lose five teeth then I'm going to be upset, make no mistake about that. Yes, it's vanity I care about the way I look, the way I feel and the way I am - and I don't want to apologise about it."
–June 1985

"I would never, ever, do anything as vulgar as having fun."
–June 1986

"I think it's nice if somebody who is eccentric can break through. Everybody follows the same rules and does exactly what they're told. All modern groups state the unexpected - fluently, but who cares?"
–June 1986

"I'm not happy, I'm not. Almost every aspect of human life depresses me."
–June 1986

"If I wasn't doing this, I don't honestly delieve that I would want to live."
–June 1986

"Although it's hard for many people to accept, I do actually respect suicide because it is having control over one's life. It's the strongest statement anyone can make, and people really aren't strong. Most people as we know lead desperate and hollow lives."
–June 1986

"I'm still embedded in a fascination for suicide and intensified depression."
–June 1986

"I am capable of looking on the bright side. I just don't do it very often."
–Sept. 1987

"I have taste, after all, which is why I'm considered out of step with anything that could be regarded as slightly hip. And because I have taste, and don't really blend in with the general colour of 1987, people think I'm some kind of monument from the last century."
–Sept. 1987

"I have seen one or two psychiatrists. They just sit and nod and doodle."
–April 1988

"I do think that I have achieved a great deal as a human being."
–April 1988

"I always find when the doorbell rings that my automatic response is to hide or run away, to be quiet."
–April 1988

"I will not do the kind of things you're meant to do when you're famous."
–April 1988

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