Billy Corgan

In the beginning, though, I have to admit that I did have a chip on my shoulder. I did want to prove everyone wrong. But after I went through the process and came out the other side, it wasn't about anyone else.

The things I'm guided to do are really strange to me.

People try to make a big deal, like I don't want to play my old songs. That's not it. I don't want to play my old songs if that's my only option. That's a different thing.

I was brought up Roman Catholic. I'm not even baptized.

I walked away from going to church when I was 8. I didn't set foot in another church until I was 28.

If I have resistance to something, it means there's something wrong. The resistance to me is a sign of fear.

There's a difference between being a poseur and being someone who's so emotionally challenged they're kind of just doing their best to show you what they've got.

For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.

I didn't find Jesus. He's been there the whole time.

My version, of course, is not this flag-waving, let's all get on the Jesus train and ride out of hell. I'm not that kind of guy. It's an embrace that life is good, worth living and yeah, it's not easy, but there are more pluses than minuses.

I feel like I'm always fighting not to repeat myself.

I'm definitely responsible for coming in with some basic chord changes, or ideas. Everybody in the band looks to me to come up with the basic seed, so it's not very productive to come in with nothing.

I'll come in with a string of riffs and direct the musical ideas. But you still need a band and their input to make the ideas come alive. You can't underestimate band chemistry.

People think I take some sort of masochistic pleasure out of putting out music that's gonna be unpopular.

The deeper I get into my life as a musician, I'm discovering that it becomes less and less about other people, and more about what I want to do. And that's a good place to be.

I'm viewed as this weird, crippled character. But you got to take your lumps.

The funny thing about me that most people never really understand is that, at heart, I'm really a jock.

I had concussions as a kid playing football and basketball, and know what it feels like and to have someone say 'Just rub some dirt on it, and get back in there.'

Injuries are nothing to be ashamed about.

I've seen foreigners really shift on their view of America, and that's hard for me to take.

I still believe in my country.

You've got to be ready to be in a great relationship.

In our lives in a lot of ways it's all about fake. You've got people wanting things for fake reasons.

It's a simple formula for me now, I don't play any song I don't want to play.

I tend to be reactionary.

Somewhere between the intellectual idea of why we're attracted to certain things and the pragmatic reality is some form of ever-evolving truth.

I'm a bit weird.

I'm attacking the pomposity that says this is more valuable than that. I'm sick of that.

I was part of a generation that changed the world, and it was taken over by posers.

My mother and I parting company at four years old is a recurring theme; although it's not symbolically necessarily present, it's present in all my relationships.

To be able to put your arms around 24 years of music, it's really fun.

Rock in the mainstream culture has lost a lot of its mojo.

I mean there's certainly a lot of progressive rock and metal that exists at the underground level, which has its own vitality, as it should. But it seems to have lost its ability to really charge up the hill.

I think when I listen to old records, it puts me back in the atmosphere of what it felt like to make the record and who was there and what the room looked like. It's more a sensory memory.

I'm just an artist. I can only do so much. I can only say so much.

We need to get back to a level of social responsibility that we haven't seen for a long time.

We've turned into a whining society.

There's nothing wrong with technology. It's when technology is the story and not the artist, that's the problem.

If I worried about appearances, I wouldn't be at Cubs games.

I look at other members of my generation who have basically done one thing, and one thing well, and have been handsomely rewarded for it.

There are people out there who are older who are cool. I want that.

I don't want to be 25 again.

I'm not interested in pop art.

I started thinking that if post modernism is about people opening up all their skeletons, I'm going the other way. I don't want anyone knowing anything about me anymore.

You know Americans are obsessed with life and death and rebirth, that's the American Cycle. You know, awakening, tragic, horrible death and then Phoenix rising from the ashes. That's the American story, again and again.

These days you're not just competing with the tedium, you're competing with the cellphone.

You have to keep adapting to the times. If you kind of go with it, it can kind of fun.

You have to be willing to deal with the ups and downs of the music, the ups and downs of the audience.

You just reach a point sometimes with somebody where it just doesn't work.

I think the days of working with producers in the conventional sense are over for me.