"as I write, Johnny Rotten's first moments in "Anarchy in the U.K."-a rolling earthquake of a laugh, a buried shout, then hoary words somehow stripped of all claptrap and set down in the city streets-I AM AN ANTICHRIST-Remain as powerful as anything I know. Listening to the record today-listening to the way Johnny Rotten tears at his lines, and then hurls the pieces at the world; recalling the all-consuming smile he produced as he sang-my back stiffens; I pull away even as my scalp begins to sweat."

--

Source : "Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century". Book by Greil Marcus, 1989.

Greil Marcus

#Powerful Quotes #Writing Quotes #Earthquakes Quotes

“A novelist is a man who doesn't like his mother.”
“I grew up in church. That's how most young African American musicians learn how to perform. You could be six years old and playing organ or drums in front of thousands or hundreds of people.”
“Life is about growth. People are not perfect when they're 21 years old.”
“To the contrary, I think we bent over backwards to press for elections and for democratic reform.”
“Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art.”

Source : "A brief survey of the short story part 16: Donald Barthelme" by Chris Power, www.theguardian.com. April 1, 2009.
“I never looked at my parents' marriage or really anyone who had been married more than 30 years and thought, 'I gotta get me some of that!'”

Source : "Theater: Mike Birbiglia’s Hapless Charm" by Michael Giltz, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 2, 2011.
“Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.”
“If you beat your head against the wall, it is your head that breaks and not the wall.”

Source : Antonio Gramsci (1968). “The modern prince: and other writings”

You may also like:

Amy Tan
Film writer
Anthony DeCurtis
Author
Bob Dylan
Musician
Ellen Willis
Essayist
Joel Selvin
Music criticism
Lester Bangs
Journalist
Nick Tosches
Journalist
Pauline Kael
Film critic
Sean Wilentz
Professor