Joey Ramone

“When I was a kid growing up in the '60s, music was an outlet for enlightenment, frustration, rebellion. It was more about individualism. Today it's just like a big business.”

“punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am”

“I mean, like, rock n' roll was always about spirit and fun.”

“When Dee Dee would start singing, he would stop playing the guitar, because he couldn't sing and play at the same time.”

“For better or worse, MTV sort of bridges the whole country together almost like the BBC does in England. It's opened up everything so wide that it's possible for everyone to have different ideas.”

“Rock n' roll is very special to me. It's my lifeblood.”

“To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'.”

“I remember being turned on to The Beach Boys, hearing 'Surfin' U.S.A.,' I guess, in 1960. But The Beatles really did it to me.”

“I enjoyed my life when I had nothing... and kinda like the idea of just being happy with me.”

“The Ramones own the fountain of youth. Experiencing us is like having the fountain of youth.”

“We always stayed true to what the Ramones are.”

“I'd just sit with Dee Dee on the corner off of Queens Boulevard and drink and insult people and stuff. That's when I got kicked out of my house. My mother told me it was for my own good.”

“Everybody's just emulated us and now everybody just kinda takes our sound as their foundations.”

“To me, John Lennon and Elvis Presley were punks, because they made music that evoked those emotions in people.”

“Forest Hills was a middle-class neighborhood filled with snobby rich people and their screaming brats.”

“Nobody picked up guns in those days. You put on music, and it made you feel great.”

“All punk is is attitude. That's what makes it. The attitude.”

“One day I got a phone call, and Johnny and Dee Dee asked me if I wanted to join their band. I said, 'Yeah.'”

“The thing about school is that if you're forced into learning stuff, you're not going to be into it.”

“The first record I bought may have been Del Shannon's 'Runaway.'”