Some Favourite Morrissey Quotes

January was a horrendous month for me except for the fact I found out you can make vegan cupcakes with a box of cake mix and a tin of pop. (ThanksPeta 2!) And guess what? It actually works. I used this as an opportunity to celebrate the very important 4 month anniversary of Moogly the spider living on my window sill, and baked black glitter spider cupcakes. Whether my excitement over Moogly's milestone means that my (very) minimal maternal instincts have gone haywire in my mid 30’s, or that I’m very bored, or that I’m simply just insane - doesn’t matter - because the important thing is, while I’ve always loved animals, Moz has helped me embrace living creatures that used to scare me – such as spiders (yes, yes I'm still nervous around very large ones). As we approach his 5th month living here, I find Moogly’s presence extremely comforting and am always pleased to see him.

Morrissey in Santa Barbara w/ a Mexican flag by mozzlie on Instagram

Spider cupcakes

But wait... aside from vegan glittery spider cupcakes, there was one more fantastic thing about January, and that was on January 31^st , it was announced Morrissey will be headlining the Roxy Festival in Guadalajara. Morrissey in Mexico! The TTY announcement included a photomontage by Sam Esty Rayner of Thump holding a “World Peace is None Of Your Business” sign. Trump probably cannot spell the word Peace, as it is unlikely to be found anywhere in his vocabulary; in fact, he’d more likely spell it “Piece”, considering his power-based-on-fear politics are intent on splintered divisiveness and blazing guns macho ‘bravado’ (yawn). The first thing I wondered when Trump was (shudder) elected was “is he really going to build a wall?” Ugh. 

This Is Not America photomontage by SER via TTY

The last time I visited Mexico, I was 12 years old which was an...errr.... rather long time ago... and I only managed to catch a glimpse of Puerto Vallarta as a disembarked and disenchanted cruise ship passenger. Not that I didn’t find Mexico enchanting - it's a beautiful country full of culture and passion; the issue was...I felt an immense sense of embarrassment regarding some of my travel 'companions'. Our prepackaged excursion itself was lovely, involving a wander through the outskirts of lush palm jungles and into pockets of town speckled with people and animals, including a bobbing brown chicken. The people of Puerto Vallarta were friendly and smiling, selling delicately handmade crafts at colourful stands, but I felt apologetic about the majority of my cruise-mates: tactless white businessmen wearing Señor Frogs hats, who seemed to suffer from bellowing superiority complexes - or something... Full of unending embarrassment, I just quietly stared at the entire spectacle while wondering if the majority of the Mexicans, including the children, were inwardly rolling their eyes as this frenzied pack of tourists pronouncing "hola" with a hard h invaded their home for a couple of hours. Self-consciousness raked me: did I seem so tacky and unwanted myself?  To be honest, if you want to travel and truly experience your destination, I wouldn’t recommend cruises, especially if you aren’t a fan of other humans - or never-ending buffets.

I would love to go back to Mexico, free from the burden of cruise-ship people, and Guadalajara looks beautiful (I am drawn to the architecture especially). I've also been missing Morrissey and I can imagine the passion of the fans for Moz’s return is palpable. Now I wait and wonder if I should begin dusting off my Spanish lessons.

Guadalajara Cathedral

In the meantime, I thought I would post a collection of some of my favourite Morrissey quotes that I compiled around two years ago, along with a few others I've since added. Some of the quotes are thought-provoking, some are profound, some are heart-wrenching, some are humorous, some are a combination of all four, and all of them speak to me on a level most people never reach. All words from Morrissey are in quotations.


Q: If you could tell your teenage self one thing, what would it be?

A: "I am still my teenage self. If you think that we all step through a door marked Adult, or that we sign a Grown-Up Document, you're quite wrong. We remain as we always were, and that, alas, is one of life's many nasty tricks."

Worst Habit:

"Avoiding people. I avoid people that I actually like. I suppose that's a phobia, but it's also a habit."


Q: I think a lot of young people, including myself, find it hard to be truly themselves. Your music has helped me immensely on this issue. What would your advice be to the younger generation on how to accept yourself?

"I don't think we ever do! I think we all die feeling apologetic and embarrassed. I'm as much of a mess now as I was when I was 16. There are too many forces telling us we aren't good enough - music critics, bank managers, the police, the judiciary, ex wives ... do you have the nerve to tell them all to get stuffed? That's the only thing that will do it. The sociological arrangements of the western world rely exclusively on people NOT being their true selves. Otherwise, they couldn't be governed and frightened and lost and timid - as most people unfortunately are. You can't control people by telling them to be themselves. As soon as people decide to be themselves, the police reach for their stun guns, and governments roll out the tanks ... Egypt, Bahrain, Thailand, Brazil, Ukraine, Syria ... the very last thing we are encouraged to be is ourselves. This is why it's always so shocking when someone stands up and gives an honest opinion. In all cases, such people are criticized by the print media, but never applauded." Via TTY


"I think people like David Davis only go into politics because it's the only arena where atrocious haircuts are permissible" Hot Press 2008

The only arena where atrocious haircuts are permissible.

"Life is so difficult for everybody, and it certainly has been for me. But I feel I can cope with it more. And that's simply realizing how you can step back and make yourself comfortable and shut the world away and stop watching television news and so forth. I find that useful."  From an interview with the Daily Telegraph


"I think it's important to lead a good life, and try not to hurt anyone - or anything. This is difficult because we live in a world where violence seems to be the answer to everything. The courts, the police, tax officials, governments - they all rely upon the threat of violence to get their way.
It's a crude world and most people are crude. All you can do is your best." Via TTY


"We're all lonely, but I'd rather be lonely by myself than with a long list of duties and obligations. I think that's why people kill themselves, really. Or at least that's why they think, 'Thank heaven for death.'"

"Most people, I find in life, do not want to be individual. They want to walk in a pack; they want to be part of a herd. God forbid they're ever considered to be special. And that's why most people reproduce, because it proves that they're a regular Joe. But there's certainly such a pressure in American society to be that regular Joe."

Q: They reproduce as proof that they are a regular Joe?

"Yes, to prove that they are sound and they're gung-ho and everything's working - I can do it and I can prove it, out comes this little splotchy thing that, uh... nobody really likes. [Laughs.]

Moz then goes on to say that he would make a good dad to kittens. Via LA Weekly

"I'm drawn to people who aren't afraid and who question authority. It takes great courage, I think, to defend animals - and it takes great courage to speak your mind. Most people are petrified by public embarrassment - especially in America, which is why the police constantly shout at the public - this doesn't happen in any other country. Except Fiji." When asked what qualities he admires most in a person. Via TTY


"I don't think loneliness or a sense of isolation is restricted to youth. For some people, unfortunately, it lasts for their entire lives. They remain alone, or they remain very reflective, looking inwards. So I don't ever feel that I was initially simply writing for 13-year-olds. I also don't think once you're beyond 21 everything magically falls into place. I don't think that's true. From an interview with SPIN


"German cities are booming, stylish, artistic, and classy ... Britain, on the other hand, is obsessed with detestable celebrity, OMG diets, Botox, make-overs, and under-the-dryer gossip. It is England that has gone backwards and has become a dumbed-down 1980's California, where the print media are fully content with people such as Pippa Middleton." From an interview with Loaded

Morrissey in Berlin. Photo by Andras Meixensperger

Q: Do you blame anyone or anything for you being alive?

A: "Not at all. But I wouldn't want to inflict it on anyone else... I cannot understand having children. Even if the opportunity arose, I would definitely turn it down. No I don't blame anyone for bringing me into the world, but I do feel that life is excessively overrated." Blitz, 1988


"I see nothing wrong with being hard to please. It has its own grace, it's the very least we should expect. I feel that the opinions of the hard to please people are the ones that really count. They are prepared for discovery and change." Blitz, 1988


Q: The song 'Something is Squeezing My Skull is about anti-depressants. Are you skeptical about their usefulness?

"Whatever gets you through. I'm not judgmental about these things... Booze, drugs, if it helps you, then take it. Life is a difficult business, and most people find it to be actually impossible... even Jesus only made it to 33. I don't know why we're all so hard on ourselves. We all need the same things from life, and they're very simple things,yet we all make sure that the other doesn't get it. People are pathetic, on the whole, and I mean pathetic in a sad sense." Hot Press, 2008

Q: 'Something is Squeezing My Skull' describes a state of some despair or isolation, set to paradoxically driving music. Does the song pertain to a specific episode or period in your life, or does it refer to a more general disquiet?

"I was enormously influenced by film as a child, and I made the assumption at a very early age that whatever you see in feature film is what will eventually happen when you grow up. When I became a teenager it was strikingly obvious that feature films - especially Hollywood films - were the biggest lie of all. And still are. This, coupled with the realisation when I was around ten or eleven, that abattoirs existed, was too much for me and I slipped from being quite a noisy and yappy child into an intense and withdrawn thirteen-year-old. Further on, the direct result of this was the inevitable anti-depressants. If you can't shoulder the burden of living in a society which is less than civilized then you don't quite fit into the community and too much is going on in your head. When I was fifteen I was under no illusion that life was a terrible thing. My view has never changed. I think this is why we all love to sleep - because it's the only way to get away from life. Well, of course, there is another way..." Hot Press, 2009


"I'm thankful that the people who consider me to be depressing are always in themselves very dull." Thrasher Magazine, 2015


Q: Do you like people?

"Not really... I can't think of a reason to like them. Human beings are not, by nature, interesting."

"I understand well why many writers lock themselves away forever. With their words they can recreate the actions they couldn't develop in real life, and not because they are dysfunctional, but because the human race is not empathetic at all. To make true friends can take a lifetime, and at the same time, the more you know a person, the more they disappoint you. They say we are a civilized species, but I insist, turn on the television and you will see what we are: a bunch of crazy people in a global insane asylum."


"Yes, I carry around notebooks because we do tend to hear things that we'll never hear again, so there's no point relying on memory all of the time. I also listen intently to what people say, and I have the annoying habit of constantly seeing it written down before me. This is only annoying because most people don't say anything interesting. Consequently, all of my notebooks are blank." The Australian, 2015.


"I'm very proud of the lyrics to 'The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores...Partly because they're obviously very true, but also because I can't think of anyone who has ever made that observation." The Australian, 2015.

Gathering these quotes together again has me wanting to re-read some of my interview books - and I think I shall. In other Morrissey news, there are new pin badges at the UK Mporium store and one is a black cat. My heart! <3 I would love to add this to my collection of Moz cat merch, as it combines my two most-adored comforts in this world, Morrissey and cats. This darling little black cat sold out in two days, so I'm hoping more will arrive.

How Soon is Meow?

Photo via MPorium UK