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The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done all right.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins
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You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love...I love...I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.
D'arcy Wretzky The Smashing Pumpkins -
People just expect you to show up, be a cartoon character of yourself, take your money and go home. But don't screw up to the point where you're gonna be out of the picture.
Jimmy Chamberlin The Smashing Pumpkins -
I think if you're able to make the music you want and you can do it in the right kind of context, you don't have to be a circus ringleader to be successful.
James Iha The Smashing Pumpkins -
When you move artistically, the natural inclination is to denounce everything that's gone before.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
Actually, I was having dinner with Michael (Stipe, of R.E.M.) when our second album went platinum, which up until that point was the highest success we'd ever had. And he turned to me during dinner and said, 'Welcome to the deep waters, kid.' I'll never forget that.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
My mother came to a Smashing Pumpkins gig once, and I was wearing a dress. She was very upset. She said, 'Everyone's gonna think you're a fag.' I said,'Well, they already think I'm an asshole.'
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins
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I always wanted to be in this role, as a songwriter. In the Pumpkins, it was always impossible because Corgan would wake up and write five songs. He was so prolific, there wasn't a lot of room for anyone else.
Jimmy Chamberlin The Smashing Pumpkins -
I was known for throwing knives.
D'arcy Wretzky The Smashing Pumpkins -
Music is 99% of my life. But I know I need a break. Besides, if you give people too much, they start to not want it. We need to restrain ourselves.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
To me, music was about being accepted and escaping from this crummy existence.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
People always called The Cure gloomy, but listening to The Cure made me happy. There was something about the gloominess that gave me comfort, and I think we're the same way.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
This is not a reaction against a negative world. It's a response to a negative world.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins
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It's about the girlfriend who left me last year. I tried to put all my anger in those words, even though I'm just as much to blame for the break-up. 'Soma' is based on the idea that a love relationship is almost the same as opium: it slowly puts you to sleep, it soothes you, and gives you the illusion of sureness and security. Very deceivable.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
People act like Nirvana invented grunge; they just took it and personified it.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
I want to be 'Jimmy Chamberlin, the drummer, the musician who's done many things,' not just 'that guy from the Smashing Pumpkins.'
Jimmy Chamberlin The Smashing Pumpkins -
I think the original, 'They're the next Jane's Addiction' things that people said about us in the beginning have been pretty much wiped out.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
Legacy above finances; artistry above fame.
Jimmy Chamberlin The Smashing Pumpkins -
I love a lot of the New York bands, but Patti Smith stands out. I just read 'Just Kids' and it's an inspirational, well-written account of an emerging New York artist in the late seventies.
James Iha The Smashing Pumpkins
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We have a problem with any labels that people try to hang on us, because all it does is drag you down.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
I don't necessarily believe that the sting of failure is a bad thing. It gives you a certain amount of freedom to just say fuck it!
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins -
I started a recording studio. I started producing people and doing remixes.
James Iha The Smashing Pumpkins -
I get more out of life just being myself, by just being a human being. Not by being a rock star, not by being whatever. Sometimes I act like a jerk, but I think people respect me for being myself. That's the ultimate thing about the Smashing Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan The Smashing Pumpkins