By the '80s, anything to do with punk was perceived as rancid. Me being known as the 'punk poet' meant my work and I plummeted. — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
Lyrics became important for a while in the late Seventies. Patti Smith was a poet and a rock star, as much one as the other, the distinctions were a bit blurred and then you get swept up in it. Punk… — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
When the punk rock thing happened, I thought, 'Right, I have one chance here to be seen as part of some wider social phenomenon.' — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
To make the hips the focal point of a pair of trousers is, to me, a fashion mistake. — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
The greatest threat to any artist is surrounding themselves with people who love everything they do. — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
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… — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
As they used to say on Stingray, ‘Anything can happen in the next half hour’. I’ve always tried to live with that thought in… — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
It was a tedious saying among hippies: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I was very much part… — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
From social pariah to King of the World? It's taken 45 years, so I've been able to adjust to it! — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
Well, I've obviously been a great source of inspiration to the academic population of Salford! They're citing me as a major contribution to their… — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
They're very different things, a poem and a song, you wouldn't think they would be, but they are. — John Cooper Clarke Copy Share Image
