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SELF
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"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I just live a terribly solitary life, without any human beings involved
whatsoever. And that to me is almost a perfect situation."
"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."
"I don't trust a living human being. I find most people totally
repugnant, so no wonder I have no social life!"
"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."
"I'm a severe critic - severe upon other people. If a person has a hole
in their sock, they crumble before me."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I was terribly embarrassed when I fell off the stage in New York."
"I never go out to eat. I have an embarrasingly restricted diet - it's
literally yoghurts and apples, nothing else."
"I've never had a social life and I don't have one now. Things haven't
changed that much."
"I will die for what I say."
"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."
"I look ill, don't I?"
"I lie a lot - it's really useful."
"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."
"I want to be used."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I would never, ever, do anything as vulgar as having fun."
"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?"
"I'm not happy, I'm not. Almost every aspect of human life depresses
me."
"If I wasn't doing this, I don't honestly delieve that I would want to
live."
"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."
"I'm still embedded in a fascination for suicide and intensified
depression."
"I am capable of looking on the bright side. I just don't do it very
often."
"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."
"I have seen one or two psychiatrists. They just sit and nod and
doodle."
"I do think that I have achieved a great deal as a human being."
"I always find when the doorbell rings that my automatic response is to
hide or run away, to be quiet."
"I will not do the kind of things you're meant to do when you're famous." |