Billie Joe Armstrong

“There are always young bands playing in their garages. A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It's below the radar. The beauty of it is that you're not supposed to always know. It's subterranean.”

“I don't like LA. The majority just seem to be so artificial. Look at how they worship everything they think is fashionable. Isn't it sick?”

“I don't want to live in an ivory tower, being the songwriter who just turns inward.”

“We put everything we had into this record, just like we do with every other record that we make.”

“I've been playing rock and roll since I was 16 years old, and now I have a 16-year-old.”

“We're not a political band. We don't want to tell people what to do or what to think. We just want to tell them to think.”

“In every song I write, whether it's a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing that I find is feeling lost and trying to find your way.”

“I'm very monogamous.”

“Punk is not just the sound, the music. Punk is a lifestyle.”

“I'm a father. It isn't just my life any more. I don't want my kid finding bottles in the house or seeing his father completely smashed.”

“A lot of punk rock is not going to be in the mainstream. It's below the radar. The beauty of it is that you're not supposed to always know. It's subterranean.”

“There are a lot of bands who claim to be punk and they only play the music, they have no clue what it's all about. It's a lifestyle. It's not about popularity and all that crap.”

“No one's really happy anyway, it's not human.”

“What is going on in America is extreme. The youth cult, they worship youth so much it's almost paranoid. And LA is the Mecca of it all; they're taking it to the hilt.”

“The first time that you escape from home or the small town that you live in - there's a reason a small town is called a small town: It's because not many people want to live there.”

“Our passion is our strength.”

“Formats are constantly changing, and there are really no rules for the way you put your records out anymore.”

“When I signed that major-label contract when I was 20 years old. I did it because I wanted to play music for the rest of my life. That's every 20-year-old's dream - to do whatever the hell you want.”

“Minority is about being an individual. It's like you have to sift through the darkness to find your place and be that individual you want to be your entire life.”

“Music - that's been my education. There's not a day that goes by that I take it for granted.”