John Cooper Clarke

“You can always find something better to do than writing when you're at home.”

“Me, I listen to all kinds of music, really.”

“I've had a few jobs, but if you want to be a writer, you're better off getting a job that doesn't require that you do anything.”

“The only casual item I own is a Levi's jacket.”

“You know how the Marvel Comics superheroes formed themselves into the Justice League of America - Batman, Flash and the rest. Why did Superman join? He never needed any help.”

“All the best musicians started out in church; Jesus invented rock 'n' roll.”

“There is a certain sentimental vibe in my home town of Manchester, which you would sort of expect.”

“I got to play The Vortex in London with the Buzzcocks, the Fall, me and Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers. That was a serious Manchester night.”

“I quite like cooking, but not to the extent that I look on a kitchen as a domain.”

“Literally' - I'm not having it; people can't go around saying 'literally.' Otherwise, what's literal? There's not another word for literally: if it isn't figurative or metaphorical, what is it? It's literal: there's no substitute.”

“I don't work with anybody I don't like, just for the attention.”

“I ain't got a credit card, a mobile phone or a computer. Call me sentimental. I think that's a whole world of trouble I ain't got no business setting foot in. And you know what? It feels good.”

“There've been lots of positive changes in the city since I worked at Salford Tech in the seventies, and I'm pleased to be known as Salford's Bard and to have helped put it on the map.”

“I'm not giving away sartorial secrets but the trousers I wear cost 19 quid.”

“Everybody that read one of my poems went off and wrote poetry. They said that about the Velvets, didn't they? They didn't sell many records, but everybody that saw them formed a band.”

“Too many memoirs focus on childhoods and it's a bit turgid.”

“People who believe in God are happier than those who don't.”

“When the punk rock thing happened, I thought, 'Right, I have one chance here to be seen as part of some wider social phenomenon.'”

“I love Charles Baudelaire. Him and Shakespeare are the only people I think are better than me.”

“It took me 30 years for people to consider me an overnight success.”