Billy Corgan

“My mother and I parting company at four years old is a recurring theme; although it's not symbolically necessarily present, it's present in all my relationships.”

“All I can go on is my own value system.”

“I mean, I'm certainly not a 'teaophyte,' or whatever the word would be.”

“Somewhere between the intellectual idea of why we're attracted to certain things and the pragmatic reality is some form of ever-evolving truth.”

“I did 13-something years of talking to wrestlers and promoters about why they did certain things and why they booked matches a certain way and what they were thinking and whether they were satisfied with the draw. And I got a lot of insight in the business.”

“Calm, open debate, and logical thought drive strength to its maximum effectiveness.”

“You could have a zillion Facebook followers. Those people don't buy records. It's about a hundred to one...Record companies, they don't have any money, so they see social media as the free marketing... So... 'Billy, light yourself on fire and stand upside down, and that'll market the record.'”

“To me, it's the folly of man to make God human.”

“I think long and hard about what it is I'm actually trying to do, and then I kind of have to narrow my focus into that. If I don't, I'm too all over the place.”

“If you don't fit into this kind of like gossipy, trendy, Web-hit thingy, you're relegated to sort of second-class celebrity status.”

“I think God is the most unexplored territory in rock and roll music.”

“In our lives in a lot of ways it's all about fake. You've got people wanting things for fake reasons.”

“I'm very disappointed in my country right now, because I think we've kind of lost our moral compass.”

“I'm prepared to spend the rest of my life playing clubs, if that means I'm playing music that I believe in.”

“I've always been spiritual but I've never had a proper context, and it took me awhile to find the proper context. It's hard to realize you can have any kind of relationship with God you want... and so I now have a punk rock relationship with God.”

“The ideology of the Smashing Pumpkins was ultimately more valuable than the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. That's what critics can't put their finger on.”

“I don't think people buy records because of anything that happens on Facebook. They buy records cause they're friends say 'I bought this record and I love it.'”

“There's a difference between being a poseur and being someone who's so emotionally challenged they're kind of just doing their best to show you what they've got.”

“You have to be willing to deal with the ups and downs of the music, the ups and downs of the audience.”

“I'm viewed as this weird, crippled character. But you got to take your lumps.”