Quotes from John Cooper Clarke

When you're doing poetry like mine that rhymes, it's very easy to sound like a song that didn't work out!

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.

The first time I heard rock'n'roll on a big sound system would have been at a fairground at the seaside. That's a hell of a sensory experience right there.

The very pointlessness of a sea walk is it's attractiveness to me.

Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.

My look was based on the Madison Avenue guy who's just lost his job. Ivy League suit a bit scuzzed up, an outgrown layer cut and five o'clock shadow.

I eat like a pig. Tripe is the only thing I won't eat.

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

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.

Poverty - the one thing money can't buy

I write with pen and paper. I don't have a mobile or computer, because I know how great they are. If I did, I'd never leave the house - you'd find me in six months, dead under a pile of pizza boxes.

The main thing a poem ought to be is musical. It should be rhythmic. You should hear it as a musical piece in your head as you're writing it.

They're very different things, a poem and a song, you wouldn't think they would be, but they are.

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.

Idleness - a job that you have to go to, but not necessarily do anything - is the poet's friend.

I'm not fond of crowds. I'm no jittery neurotic, but I don't really want to be surrounded by a lot of people if I have a choice.

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

Find a poet whose style you like, emulate that style, then deal with things that you know about - don't waste your time looking for your own style.' I wish I could remember who told me that, because I'd like to congraulate him. I've emulated all the old guys - Tennyson, Alexander Pope.

I crack myself up. Even I don't know what I'm going to say next.

I'm a great reader of credits; I never leave the cinema before they finish.

My dad was an electrical engineer.

Not everyone is prepared for fame, not even at the level I got it. One minute you're just a face in the crowd, next minute everyone wants a piece of you.

The '80s were a lost decade.

My declining allure is a source of great sadness to me.