A biography for Genesis P-Orridgehasn’t been written yet.
“The status quo is presented as something to aspire to, whereas for us, the status quo was something we wanted to shatter in order to create the space for people to choose for themselves.”
“We must embrace unity, not separation - sharing, go back to small, caring communities. Unity, not separation, is what has to happen.”
“The body is simply the suitcase that carries us around.”
“We don't agree with Caitlyn Jenner deciding she is the spokesperson for trans people.”
“The punk rockers said, 'Learn three chords and form a band.' And we thought, 'Why learn any chords?' We wanted to make music like Ford made cars on the industrial belt. Industrial music for industrial people.”
“There's always a way to say something that could seem really commonplace and make it special again.”
“With Thobbing Gristle, that era from '75 to '81 was a period when the politics of the time demanded anger and rage.”
“My artwork is in order to seduce people into thinking.”
“I was very good friends with Ian Curtis from Joy Division. In fact, I was the last person he spoke with before he died.”
“Writing is a recording that you can cut up and reassemble. Sound is something you can cut up and reassemble. Film, video - you know, the main tools of culture - can all be cut up and reassembled.”
“Pleasure is a cultural weapon. Use it wisely.”
“The biggest way to say, philosophically, you'll never be part of a war is to look completely the opposite of anyone in a war.”
“Even if the world outside is destroying itself and fragmented and paranoid and fearful, the job of the artist is to embrace and hold people and say, 'It's OK, be safe here.'”
“Any artist should stay challenged as long as possible.”
“It has always been my belief that creation, the making of 'art' in any medium or combination of mediums, is a holy act.”
“Things don't happen in a vacuum, and artists don't make work in a vacuum.”
“In the art world, sentimentality and intimacy and the emotive side of lives are considered very uncool. There's nervousness around intimacy.”
“All the people at university were very aristocratic - except me, because I was on scholarship. And everyone there voluntarily wore suits and ties every day. And this was in the '60s!”
“Once you believe things are permanent, you're trapped in a world without doors.”
“I really feel that I've been unjustly exorcised from the story of psychedelic music.”