Shane MacGowan Quotes

The only politician anybody ever believed was Kennedy, anyway. Kennedy, Martin Luther King – civil rights always turns out in bloody war. Where’s his dream now? When is a change going to come – as Sam Cooke said – for blacks in America? Anyone who does tell the truth gets a bullet in the head, y’know what I mean?

All I can do is go by the words of Christ, who was the only talker we had, for f – ‘s sake. Buddha didn’t speak. The Holy Ghost didn’t speak. But I think it all boils down to the same thing – it’s all about unity, love, compassion.

There’s an art to playing live. It’s a great feeling. It’s indescribable. It’s what I love. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it.

I’ve been a babe magnet for quite a while now.

I hate the bloody highways. I hate hamburgers, I hate Greyhound buses. I’d have liked to have been in America during the Jazz Age, or the Golden Age of Hollywood.

When I’m writing a song, it gives me more actual pleasure to hear someone else sing it than do it meself.

I don’t believe in the Holy Trinity – but I do believe in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spook is just a friendly way of saying Holy Ghost.

My dad has no control over who works with me. Me, me and me alone has to take responsibility for anything.

I play Irish popular music, yeah? Calling it folk is like putting it in a box. It’s a living tradition, you know?

There is drinking in lots of the songs because there is drinking in life. Drinking stimulates the imagination.

Cram as much pleasure as you can into life, and rail against the pain that you have to suffer as a result.

My mother was a champion Irish dancer and singer and most of my family were musical, particularly in Irish dancing. Music is all about spewing out your emotions. A mixture of a good tune and a good beat and everyone playing their guts out and something that grabs people’s attention.

Petitions are ridiculous.

I’ve been here all the time; I could be putting out as many albums as Costello, y’know what I mean?