Billie Joe Armstrong

“We were staying in Copenhagen and this guy comes up to us after the show and he's like, 'Come over to my house and you can meet my roommate, Sleepy.' So we were like, 'OK, we'll go meet Sleepy.' So we go over to his house and get in our sleeping bags and get ready to crash out. And then all of a sudden, he rolls in this formaldehyde tank with a human head inside of it. And he's like, 'This is my friend, Sleepy.'”

“Have you ever ate a clump of a woman's period before?”

“Oakland is like the Detroit of San Francisco.”

“Tré can mold various pocket pussies out of balloons! Beautiful.”

“Performers and artists kind of have a hole within themselves that they're constantly seeking to fill. They have a void in their lives. Of course, we all fill it with music. But for some people music isn't enough, or they don't think it's enough. And so they spiral downward. And sometimes they spiral all the way down.”

“I think having money, it's kind of mixed emotions about it. The imposter syndrome or something like that. We come from such broke backgrounds – like, my dad was a truck driver and my brother's a plumber. My older brother was a custodian, so very working class background. To have compared to when I had not... it's just been sort of a trip.”

“It seemed like when the Starman left this Earth, all the mad men came in and started to destroy everything.”

“I waited a lot of years to write songs that were about straight-up politics. There’s no new girlfriends in my life to write about, y'know? So in a lot of ways I had to sort of put myself in a vulnerable position of writing about politics and the things I believe in.”

“Anything that has to do with competition, I think, 'Oh, we're just gonna lose.'”

“Adrienne was taking a human sexuality class and she started talking to me about this class. And for a kid that's 18, some woman that's about 20, 21 years old talking to you about her human sexuality class... well, our conversations got pretty long.”

“We're best friends, basically brothers. Mike's children have always called me Uncle Billie.”

“If I were to die now, I want my wife and sons to be proud of me. That’s what my dad did. He was a hard worker. He enjoyed life and did his best to make the bad parts good.”

“Everyone has their opinions. If people want to talk shit about us, that’s fine. But I don’t think I ever sold my soul.”

“Music is something that everyone can enjoy, and it should never be divided into groups by ages or anything like that. With the kinds of records we’ve put out, isn’t it natural that all kinds of people come to see us?”

“Even if your life is shit and people are telling you what you can and can’t do, you can still come to our show, let your hair down and have fun.”

“If any one of us said we didn’t want to do this anymore, it would be the end of Green Day. Working with each other is just too natural for us. If that changed… it’d all be over.”

“Basket Case still reminds me so much of the Ashby house. That's the house we lived in, in Berkeley and our first video, Longview, was filmed there. We'd be cranking that song out in there, all of us playing in this one tiny room and our neighbours getting pissed because we'd play it five times in a row.”

“There's a police station on 12th Street in Oakland. After I got charged with a DUI, I had to do a whole bunch of paperwork there to satisfy my community service requirement.”

“In the old days, the zoot-suit guys used to jingle their change, and this was their spot. Jingletown has been held down by Latino families for 50 years. And then there's us.”

“I didn't think I'd even be alive at 29, let alone be still making music and be in a band at this age.”

“I'm old now. I can only do fuck time once.”

“Someone said to me the other day, ‘Your band is my childhood.’ And I said, ‘It’s my childhood, too!’”

“America is not supposed to be about the cult of personality; we’re supposed to be about a group of people who are making laws that would make the American people’s lives easier and affordable. Getting good jobs, getting good health care, protecting people from corporations taking advantage of them. I feel like we are completely lost on that, the real American ideal.”

“The Beatles have always been a prominent influence for us. They lived the dream that we later lived, they paved the way for us. I love all these British rockers anyway, The Who, The Animals, The Kinks, I'm also really into glam rock. The Sweet are just awesome and I could listen to David Bowie all day”

“I like being a normal person. I like being someone that just lives in a community and has good friends and strong relationships that are based on the same life experience that we’re all going through. Then I'll play a gig in front of a hundred thousand people and I go, 'Holy shit!' That doesn’t get old.”

“I do pray. I try and think of something out there that is a higher power, just to make sure I’m keeping my ego in check.”

“I'm obsessed with music. I just am. If I wasn’t in a big band, I would be working at a record store or teaching guitar lessons or doing anything to support my musical habit.”

“I’m one of six kids. I'm the youngest. It was loud. Everybody was funny. Everything seemed pretty much like a normal big family, whatever that means. But then that dynamic really switched when my father passed away when I was ten.”

“I’ve always loved the Van Morrison and U2 songs ‘Gloria’ - one being a celebration of womanhood and the other a celebration of God, which is kind of the same thing.”

“The worst thing you could ever do to music fans is give them what they want.”

“We're sitting on the curb in Lisbon and we're just drinking and talking together. [Dave Grohl] said, ‘I’m sorry, I've got the spins.’ I said, ‘Dude, just make yourself throw up!’ He said, ‘YOU make yourself throw up.’ I said ‘OK,’ so I made myself puke. He said, ‘Oh my God, you're disgusting!’”

“I would describe Bono's singing as 50 percent Guinness, 10 percent cigarettes — and the rest is religion. He's a physical singer, like the leader of a gospel choir, and he gets lost in the melodic moment. He goes to a place outside himself, especially in front of an audience, when he hits those high notes. That's where his real power comes from — the pure, unadulterated Bono. He talks about things he believes in, whether it's world economics or AIDS relief in Africa. But the voice always comes first. That's where his conviction lies.”

“If there's one thing I can't understand, it's this habit of constantly taking videos and photos with cell phones everywhere. You're on stage and you only see phones. I always say, ‘Go on, take a few pictures and then put the damn thing away and let's finally dance and have fun.’ I mean – that's what we're here for!”

“If there's one band I hate, it's fucking Slipknot with their ridiculous masks. My God, I can hardly contain myself... a nine-person pile of shit.”

“It was just time to go in a different direction when someone introduced us to Butch Vig. He's a really nice guy, a good boy – and we knew that he could handle the American Idiot follow-up. He had the courage to do it. He brought us calmness, self-confidence and class and helped us keep track of all the ideas. He loves music so much, it's amazing.”

“We're generally very impatient people and had to hold back a lot so we didn't throw out any quick shots straight after American Idiot – ten songs in three weeks. But we wanted to know how much we were capable of musically. Waiting for a song to develop is the hardest thing of all.”

“We weren't allowed to play 924 Gilman Street for a while because we signed with a major label with Dookie. They only support young bands, which is cool, you have to accept that. Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys once had both of his legs broken there because he was supposedly a sellout...”

“LA is really OK for a vacation. There are some really good beaches and you can have a good time. But large parts of it, like Hollywood, they're just not real places. It's more like a run-down Disneyland, only with more silicon. We're Californians, but we prefer Berkeley and Oakland.”

“You can scare yourself with ambition – having the audacity to want to be as good as John Lennon or Paul McCartney or Joe Strummer. There has been so much great shit before me I feel like a student. Who the fuck do I think I am? But you have to battle past that. It's the people who are overconfident who are the ones putting out the biggest piles of shit. If you're at that place where you're working hard but don't feel like you know what you're doing anymore, then you're on to something.”

“A lot of assholes from the Bay Area, they fucking split and go to a shithole called fucking Hollywood. I’m staying in Oakland, baby.”

“No matter what, there is always a repercussion with everything you do. If we put a record out that sounded like Dookie critics would say that we're a one-trick pony and thanks for another mediocre punk rock record. But now that we've changed, people think we're soft and going away from our punk rock roots.”

“It would be stupid for me to slag the current music scene. Things are so bad now they're not even offensive. How can I slag NSYNC? That would be like beating up a 13-year-old girl.”

“Woodstock was supposed to celebrate something, but instead it was total chaos, total anarchy, people shivering in the cold, covered in mud, pissing themselves. I told them they were total morons.”

“We like the music we make because it captures the true spirit of rock: escaping from the everyday trappings of work, school, religion and politics.”

“I come from the school of Pete Townsend and The Replacements. Although when I was 13 I saw an REM concert which totally inspired me to form a band.”

“I wanted to get out of a shithole town where you had to kill someone or dye your hair blue to be noticed. I wanted to go to other cities, other states, other countries, and take Mike along with me.”

“Being a parent is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life.”

“You are only allowed to use the word 'hella' if you're from East Bay Area. I’m serious! No-one else in California is allowed! It was invented from Oakland through Crockett, CA. Got it? Good! Damn it!”

“Just look at Tre's hair! What’s not to love about THAT?! I wanna have sex with that haircut!”

“Guitar wankers are a dime-a-dozen, but I think I have a guitar sound that people can recognise.”

“The person I’m most proud of in my family is my father. A guy always on picket lines and in protests, always on the streets with workers. He wasn’t a soldier or a punk. He was a man who wanted to do the right thing, for his Billie Joe.”

“Life isn’t perfect, it’s better than that. If you can survive through some of this stuff, you find out who you really are. Whether it’s drug addiction, or losing a family member, or dealing with someone who’s got some serious personality issues.”

“I think my first musical memory was probably when I was about four and a half years old. I wanted to learn how to play guitar but my hands were a little too small… so I had to settle for the piano.”

“I think anybody who says rock ‘n' roll can’t change lives is full of shit. Because it can. It changed mine.”

“I think my role is to shut up and listen… A lot of white people should shut up and listen. They really don’t know what the African-American experience truly is. When you have people getting shot in their cars for no reason and being put in fucking jail cells and it’s for profit, we have a serious problem, and the first thing you need to do is get educated. Don’t try to do this, like, ‘Blue lives matter.’ Don’t try to do the ‘All lives matter.’ Just shut up and listen to the experience. And then move forward after that.”

“With Warning I wanted to start saying things in songs that I could be really proud of – that wasn’t just songs about masturbation. I mean, that’s significant, too…”

“We were playing in Dublin the other night and there were a lot of bras being thrown. I said, 'I’ve never seen so many bras before.' As soon as I said that some guy’s boxer shorts ended up flying right into my hand.”

“I feel most powerful when I’m able to use my words as weapons rather than a Molotov cocktail.”

“Our shows are really fun and jovial and can also be pretty spiritual. Just let yourself go. And this is a place where every weirdo, every anxiety-prone, awkward human being can come and feel at home.”

“I think I’ll always have that teenage awkwardness – the most awkward guy in a crowded room of people. I’m pretty socially inept.”

“A lot of people thought I was being tongue-in-cheek when I wrote Basket Case, but it was no, this is pretty much a diary!”

“I think feeling nervous, or having anxiety, or something like that - I mean, I feel everything. And I think when you’re playing live, it kind of plays itself out - and it’s like wow, this is life. Life is awkward and unpredictable. And I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about it.”

“A protest song has to come from the same place as a love song.”

“Green Day for me has always been those moments of clarity. You can do all the drugs you want and drink all the booze you want, but when a band is at their best it’s when they’re clear-headed.”

“I’ve learned to kind of use anxiety in a positive way. You definitely get a bit whiny, but it’s better than bottling it up. At least now I know I’ll wake up alive.”

“Sometimes if you’re ignorant about something it’s sort of a virtue, because it makes you curious about what’s going on. I think that’s what I do in my songs, just stay curious.”

“We live in a society where nothing is sacred. I was coming out of the hotel just two days ago in Los Angeles and there’s guys out there with cameras. The first thing I thought was, 'Thank God I don’t live in Los Angeles!' People just want to fuck you.”

“Mike’s broken his teeth, his elbow, busted his head open and had a beer bottle smashed over his head. In fact, he’s done everything other than die.”

“When I asked one teacher to sign my drop-out form, he didn’t even know who I was.”

“I met Mike in fifth grade, when we were ten. He was the class comedian and he would come round to make these funny tapes, where we would mess around and pretend to be on a radio station.”

“I’m not royalty. I’m the king of nothing. I’m in the same high school rock ’n’ roll band I’ve been in since I was 16.”

“I get into Instagram, and the next thing I know, someone will say, it’s all about Snapchat now! It’s like, oh God, leave me in the Stone Age — I got one foot in the Stone Age and the millennium right now.”

“Green Day records in general are about feeling kind of lost, and a bit stupid, in the midst of chaos and media and everything that’s changed.”

“Support new bands, they’re the future. They’re the future of punk and rock ‘n' roll. No matter what. You hear people that get jaded and they think things were better back a long time ago, or whatever – not true!”

“I think punk is a lot more than just anger, and rage. It’s like the weirdo that gets to find their voice for the first time. It could be someone that wants to have their own fanzine, and write about things they believe in, and despite the odds, do it anyway.”

“My wife won’t allow Green Day to be played at home.”

“I was a terrible student. I just wasn’t focused. I also had a mullet. The most embarrassing haircut I’ve ever had.”

“The first time I ever wore eyeliner was 1990 ‘cause I thought I looked cool, like Mike Ness from Social Distortion.”

“We wrote pop music, or real poppy sort of punk rock, and we kept doing it regardless of what anybody ever said in the punk scene, because that within itself is punk rock. There was all these people playing this aggresive music, and we were outcasts in the punk scene. People talked shit about us there because our music was too poppy and girls liked to come see us play. Which is ridiculous.”

“I think everybody should get married. Boys and girls. Girls and boys. Boys and boys! Girls and girls! Shouldn’t we all be entitled to a family? Civil rights baby, it’s civil rights.”

“Right before Dookie came out, I was really at odds with myself. I was like, man, do I really want to do this? A lot of the time I was thinking about suicide, how it’s so easy to kill yourself, but so hard to stay alive. I was in a break-up with my then-girlfriend, a total, raving punk rocker who didn’t approve of me being on a major label. She moved down to Ecuador, saying she couldn’t live in a world with McDonald’s and such. It was fucking me up pretty bad.”

“I ran into Joe Strummer at an airport once. His band was playing in Minnesota and I was pushing a baby carriage. I was there to go visit my family. There he was standing right behind me so I turned around. He talked to my son Joey. He was saying, 'Oh, my name’s Joey too.' That was pretty amazing.”

“People ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And basically, it’s because I fucking want to.”

“I like to keep my girlish figure.”

“When Joey was little, he always pulled down his pants everywhere he went. He would not stop. I told him to stop one day and said if he did it one more time, a snake would pop out and eat his thing off.”

“[Lady Gaga] had this outfit on – she had so much shit on her when she walked by! She couldn’t move her arm because she was going on to do her performance, and it was like shaking hands with someone in a cast. She had this handler that was like, 'Don’t touch the costume! Don’t touch the costume!' She said something about how she loved Dookie so much she used to lick the pages. I thought it was really cool.”

“I just got attacked by a pigeon!”

“Subjects in songs become more complex in time. What used to be one muse or subject can become many.”

“Punk rock has been rather queer since the beginning.”

“When our crowds were getting more mainstream, we didn’t want to represent the typical Mohawk stereotype. Pansy Division was truly challenging, and their songs are melodic and catchy. I got letters from teenagers saying, after seeing Pansy Division, they had the courage to come out. I saw certain idiots in the crowd yelling 'faggots' or throwing shit. But I also saw people dancing and having a good time. Homophobia has no place in the punk scene or the mainstream.”

“I just got to a breaking point where it was like, by my later high school years, 'You’re all full of shit anyway. Everyone’s full of shit. I know what I’m doing, and fuck school, and fuck schoolwork, and I’m not going to go to fucking college anyway, and I’m gonna play in a rock band, and you’re all gonna be sorry.' You get vengeful - it’s a natural instinct, all those hormones going and shit.”

“If you are black, white, brown, of any nationality or any faith, gay, straight, trans, girl, boy, punk, metal, goth, weirdo, skin, freak, and the overall marginalized of all ages, we welcome you with all the rage and love we can muster. We stand by you. Together. In love and unity forever.”

“Me no spEek perty wen I tawk lik an tuul. I fudj up my werds lik a brian fart.”

“One day we will all get naked and have a million person sex party.”

“People who lack self-esteem are often the ones who are the best at making others believe in themselves. You know, as if they somehow put all their energy into making sure that no one ends up like them.”

“We would have kicked our younger selves off the tour. They were assholes.”

“My mom’s got a cute ass. Total MILF!”

“I don’t regret anything. Even playing with Bon Jovi was kind of a trip.”

“I came home one day when we were all living in a house in Richmond, California and Mike was sitting on the floor on LSD. He was sat there with his bass and he goes, ‘Listen to this bassline, doesn’t it sound funny?’ And yeah, it sounded pretty slappy.”

“We played anywhere and everywhere. Whether it’s a bar mitzvah or someone’s bathroom. Part of the beauty of punk was the same three bands borrowing one guy’s amp or the seven bands sharing one drum kit held together by tape. We played every gig. It made us a better band.”

“We’re still the same desensitized kids from the suburbs. I think that’s just the way we’re made. When mom and dad fucked they made these little monsters!”

“I never rebelled against my parents. There was nothing to rebel against. They were working class people. My mother was a waitress, my father was a truck driver - what’s to rebel against? Parental rebellion is a very Orange County thing, rebelling against your rich parents. And that certainly wasn’t my life.”

“Some people call me Billie, some call me Billie Joe – either is fine. But only my father-in-law calls me BJ. And he’s the only one who’s allowed to.”

“I’m all kinds of dad. There’s a side of me that can be pretty conservative - but on the other hands, my sons will bring their friends to shows, and they’ll be like ‘holy shit, look at those tattoos! Your dad is crazy!’”

“That’s one thing in my life I’m not proud of - it was a dangerous situation. It was one of those everything nights - beer, wine, shots. And I’m only about 5'8" and 145 pounds. On the way home I ran a red light, and the next thing I knew I was in the back of a cop car. Not one of my prouder moments.”

“We came from such a highly polluted area in Rodeo, California. It’s a refinery town and we ended up getting sent home from school because kids were having headaches and nobody could understand why, when of course, 200 yards away from the elementary school I went to was the biggest refinery in America.”

“What happened with American Idiot didn’t come easy. We didn’t do anything cheap, we didn’t take any shortcuts, we didn’t write any novelties like you see so many rock bands do. We made something that we were passionate about and either something like this was going to happen or we would’ve gone down with a good fight.”

“Fame is about giving back and doing it for the right reasons, not because you have a guilty conscience.”

“Mike and Tre are my best friends and we always keep it in perspective. Fame is not bigger than the human soul or the human spirit, and it never will be.”

“My mom sent me a hate letter after Woodstock. She said that I was disrespectful and indecent and that if my father was alive, he would be ashamed of me. She couldn’t believe that I pulled my pants down and got in a fight onstage. She even talked shit about my wife, Adrienne, and how she’s supposed to be my loving wife, but she’s never even come over and visited. It was pretty brutal.”

“It’s like that feeling of what’s obsolete, like we’re turning into a pop-culture graveyard… ooh, that was good — pop-culture graveyard! I’m going to say that so many times in the next few days.”

“I had McDonald’s last night for the first time in five years… you know that feeling when you have a one-night stand with someone you’re totally not attracted to but you’re too drunk to figure it out? That’s what I feel like right now… it’s like, it’s a good idea at the time right? Now I’m just farting a lot…”

“I think a record like Dookie is almost conceptual, because we were right in the middle of that time period.”

“Music is inspiring for me, it’s changed my life, so yeah, I absolutely think music can inspire people to change their lives.”

“Releasing albums is a cross between a panic attack and an orgasm at the same time. You should try it some time.”

“I would rather sneak into the body of Michelle Obama, thank you very much.”

“Bono sent my wife a dirty e-mail. That was kind of funny…”

“First name Billie! Last name Joe!”

“I’m sorry but a Nazi doesn’t have an opinion. A Nazi does not have freedom of speech as far as I’m concerned. If you are a danger to my friends, to my family, and to the human dignity then fuck you.”

“I’m very monogamous.”

“I do think that deodorants are a scam. You wake up and put some on, then a couple of hours later you smell even worse, so you do it again. Just throw it away.”

“I’m a fucking pacifist, but if I see a nazi, I’ll paciFIST right upside his fucking head.”

“I don’t wanna shart onstage. You get a little older, these things happen more frequently…”

“When I was a little kid doing air guitar to my favorite records I never thought I’d be doing it with an actual guitar in front of that many people.”

“Everything I do is autobiographical unless I’m writing about a friend or something.”

“During King For A Day one night I stripped down to the thong and it was a big hit, so I started doing it. I did it at a Hell’s Angels festival one night and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die!'”

“We accept anyone who feels marginalised at any Green Day event. Period. Especially if you're gay or trans, black, white, brown or of any nationality. Period. Green Day is a safe place for you to be.”

“I never want to be the kind of guy who talks about addiction. The last thing I want is sympathy from anybody. I don’t want a pity party.”

“I don’t think love songs are basic at all. I think the issue is writing things that have some personal or emotional value that people can connect to. Writing a love song is to write about something you believe or think you can believe.”

“My brother and I were taking a bath together - I was about four, so he was about six - and I guess he had a little, um, boner or something. And he took a pee. It shot straight up and went right into my mouth. I drank his piss! I ended up throwing up the dinner we had that night all over the bathtub.”

“I got arrested for stealing a car when I was 16. I ran into a ditch and ended up getting thrown in jail. My uncle had to come and get me out - he was particularly unhappy because it was his car!”

“There was this guy who rammed my head into a cement wall for no reason when I was 17. So yeah, it would be nice to have his legs broken or something.”

“This is way too life changing. Going to bed.”

“Today I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Do you know how many peanuts died for that shitty sandwich? I didn't hurt the peanuts!”

“My wife Googled ‘Billie Joe Armstrong bisexual.’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, there are about 20 pictures of you kissing different guys.’”

“When a show is uneventful, or we’re not that tight, or the crowd is lukewarm – the clothes come off. You’ve got to give them something to remember, so ten years from now they can say ‘oh yeah! We saw Green Day and Billie Joe got naked!’ I came from a working-class background, and I work hard up there.”

“My wife calls me Eeyore, after the Winnie the Pooh character.”

“I’d just rather write about being sad or angry than being happy. I’d rather write about committing suicide than about a girl.”

“The thing about sex and music is that you spend more time talking about it than you do actually doing it.”

“There was never any quitting in this band. Even when we thought we were making great records and people weren’t listening, we thought they were the stupid ones, so…”

“In doing the breakdown section of Holiday, I pounded myself in the chest with this big microphone and I ended up bruising my ribs for like a month and a half.”

“My wife thinks I’m a pain in the ass. She's right. And these are my two other wives.”

“The fucked up thing about being famous and having money is that if you complain about something, people are like ‘what the fuck are you complaining about? You don’t have to work a real job. You don’t have to worry about money or a place to live.’ I feel like I don’t have anyone to vent my frustrations to because they won’t understand.”

“We know that sometimes all we really have is each other. This is the three of us, and this is what you get.”

“I’ve been a cross between 18 and 40 since I was 10 years old.”

“Tré once convinced me to go into a bathroom with him on acid and I was freaking out because I didn’t know what I was going to do. He pulled out an asthma inhaler and he goes, ‘Here, try this. It’s rad.’”

“I don't push the self-destruct button in public. Part of the fun is doing it in your own personal time.”

“I believe in some sort of spirituality, but I don’t know if I’m gonna end up with a hundred virgins somewhere or something! I guess I’d be happy if I just got to see a few old friends on the way.”

“I have a bit of a fetish for Christianity a little bit…”

“I would never want to be a politician. I like to think of myself as a good comedian.”

“We recorded like 10 songs in one night. Then we decided to do a tour and dress up in fur coats and act like total morons. It was great.”

“I may have made this grandiose record, but I’ve got to take out the recycling, too.”

“You make excuses. You ra­tionalize. You can take a shit in a mailbox. That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.”

“I think of rock 'n' roll as being the ultimate American culture.”

“If you take a song and you get enough people singing it, it becomes an anthem, and an anthem becomes the national anthem, to a degree.”

“We decided we were going to be the biggest, best band in the world or fall flat on our faces.”

“Jesus looks like a fucking pothead, doesn’t he?”

“It's sexy to be an angry young man, not a bitter old bastard.”

“I learned show tunes as a kid. My dad was a jazz drummer, and I used to go to veterans’ hospitals and sing. I wanted to play guitar, but they said my hands were too small.”

“I learned show tunes as a kid. My dad was a jazz drummer, and I used to go to veterans’ hospitals and sing. I wanted to play guitar, but they said my hands were too small.”

“I like playing big places a lot. We got a chance to be playing these arenas, and I’m really grateful for that. I’m not going to sit here and say ‘fuck our fans, man, they’re not true Green Day fans because they heard us on MTV.’”

“I’m human still. I’m probably angry at least five days out of a week just like anybody is. Everybody gets sick of life. It’s human nature.”

“When I play, I’m not a nice guy. You know when you get really drunk and it’s like this person inside you wants to come out and be obnoxious? It’s kind of the same thing. And then people like you for it. I don’t get that.”

“I still have nightmares about falling behind in my classes. I’ll have these dreams where I’m getting an incomplete in class. When I was going in to drop out of high school, I gave one teacher the dropout slip. He just looked at me and said ‘who are you?’”

“Anything someone said about us – I don’t hold it against them, Maximumrocknroll or anybody. A lot happens in 20 years. They gotta change too. They have to be responsible for the shit they do. All I can do is be responsible for the shit I do, whatever happens. Their opinions… most people don’t even think like that anymore. I can’t hold someone’s 15-year-old self against them forever.”

“You just look for a melody to hit you over the head. You take your influences and try to sing your own song to them. It takes a long time and a lot of patience to wait for a melody to hit you, sometimes.”

“I always thought it would be cool if we could make a movie with Jesus of Suburbia, St. Jimmy, Whatsername, Gloria and Christian—like combining two records together.”

“I still have the same friends that I’ve had my whole life. And I’ve always lived here in Oakland. For me, it’s very important to feel connected to that and to stay deeply rooted in it. Maybe it’s just coming from the working class. When you come from the working class, you’re always working class. Or at least you should be, or have a sensibility about it. That comes very naturally to me.”

“Why do I do it? Because it’s art. It’s an art form. It’s just something that I feel I have to do. Something I’ve always wanted to do.”

“We were on tour, you eat bad food all the time and you just end up getting bad stomach… you get the shits, basically. So we started calling it liquid dookie. Then we thought, 'wouldn’t it be fun if we named our record that?'”

“I thought a lot of the grunge bands were nothing but arena rock bands. They just hadn’t washed their hair! They were boring and introverted and it really didn’t say anything.”

“When Jesus was born on December 25th, people go hey, it’s Christmas time! When the Easter bunny comes, it’s like hey, it’s Easter! Or when September comes, people go hey, it’s that guy in Green Day…”

“That place and that culture saved my life. It was like a gathering of outcasts and freaks. It wasn’t about people moshing in a pit and taking their shirt off.”

“Being in a band, you have to be a fan first. So when you meet people who have something to say about how some song affected them, those are the people I connect with. I still am that person myself.”

“The craziest thing love has ever made me do is get married.”

“Your speedo is my democracy.”

“I like a good cuddle party.”

“We never intended to be a political band. It comes out in the same way a good love song will come out. As long as it’s connected to the heart and the head, that’s all that matters.”

“It’s weird to be looking at sheet music for something I’ve written and I can’t understand any of it. It’s like looking at Braille.”

“We still dream about music in the same way we did when we were 16.”

“A lot of bands will say they prefer playing small shows. But let’s be honest, playing stadiums doesn’t suck either.”

“We’ll probably end up being like the movie Weekend At Bernie’s. If I’m dead you guys can just drag me and prop me up onstage.”

“I thought that calling the song Time of Your Life was just a little too levelheaded for me, so I had to come up with something different. It was like yeah, you’re getting away, but you’re not getting away that easy.”

“I never thought being obnoxious would make people like me, or inspire them.”

“I just do the best I can with what knowledge and background I have, which can be difficult because I don’t have much of a family background. Well, I do, but a dysfunctional family background. So I’m making this shit up as I go along.”

“I wanted to call one song 'Everyone Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face.'”

“A lot of punk rock bands are always trying to be so hard all of the time. Macho brutality doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a good songwriter. I think that some of The Beatles’ songs are way more punk rock than most punk songs written today.”

“I write on acoustic. I have a Silverine Harmony. But it sounds good. I just have it around the house, so I’ve written most of the songs on it.”

“I love watching Mike and Tré play Longview. I like to watch the musicianship, hearing Mike play that bass line.”

“I was stoked when Fall Out Boy inducted us into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. I felt they were kindred spirits in the way they created culture around their band to make it fun for the fans.”

“It’s really hard to read an interview. Sometimes people will say things with different tones of voice, and it’s not actually what they’re saying. If someone says something sucks, you can't tell if they're being sarcastic or serious. Sometimes I'll read something I’ve said and think, "What an asshole! Did I actually say that?!"”

“I've been singing harmony with Mike Dirnt since we were about 15 years old.”

“Pretty and demented at the same time, like me.”

“The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

“I'm always a work in progress.”

“I love my friends and family, but playing, that's my DNA.”

“Every night I play as if my life depends on it.”

“My job description is that I'm a rock star. And I'm good at it.”

“Just because you're in the missionary position don't make you no missionary.”

“I didn't think I'd even be alive at 29... let alone still making music”

“The musical is amazing. I mean, I don't throw that word around very often unless I'm talking about myself. Being humble is one of my many fine qualities.”

“I got body lice in Germany! I'd tell you they were crabs, but I wasn't getting laid.”

“The bigger the risks, the better off you are. Otherwise you're just boring.”

“I'm a dirtbag rock and roller. I want to represent that before anything else”

“I think we have the worst name in rock, I really do. It's the worst name in the world.”

“I don't care what you do, I don't wanna be a mud hippie like you”

“If me and Mike Dirnt are in the same room, it's not quite right if he's not on stage with me.”

“There's supposed to be a curfew at this shithole. We don't do fucking curfews. We'll go off when we want.”

“We pride ourselves on trying to put on the best show we can and we're not afraid to say that we happen to be the best live band in the world.”

“To me, it doesn't feel like it's just another rock record that somebody put out. It feels like we taped into the culture a little bit”

“Punk is always something that's going to be with us and to try and explain that would be stupid at this point.”

“We put the fun back into dysfunctional”

“Rock bands are such pussies, you know? I honestly think that people are looking for something that's more than just a piece of shit”

“The one thing that's always stuck with us is that we're crazy mother fuckers.”

“You're the fucking leaders, you have the power. Don't let these bastards dictate the rest of the world, or dictate your fucking life!”

“History will tell if we were really a good band or just a one-day fly.”

“Punk is always something that’s going to be with us and to try and explain that would be stupid at this point.”

“Attack your instruments. Don’t let them attack you.”

“I kind of became everyone's weird uncle. I was drunk all the time wearing a fucking leopard G-string.”

“One thing I want to teach my son is sensitivity to other people. I want to teach him not to be this macho freak.”

“You want a drumstick? Like an ice cream cone or a chicken wing!?”

“I never thought that being obnoxious would get me where I am now.”

“A lot of people, when they talk to me, I can't wait for them to shut up. Like, shut up. You're a moron. I have nothing to say, you know?”

“If someone falls down please pick them back up. Just because there's not a fuckin' camera in your face doesn't mean you don't have to look out for each other.”

“'Welcome to Montreal — fuck you' would be a good sign at your highways.”

“This song's off our album. It's called Kerplunk. It's kind of in line with the shit thing, ya know, it's like you take a dookie and it kerplunks in the toilet.”

“Just about 99% of the population masturbates while the other 1% lie about it.”

“When someone is in a car accident and they're driving at 100 mph, drunk, whose tape do you think he's listening to at that time? Think about it.”

“B-I-L-L-I-E J-O-E. My real name is Billie Joe. And it's Southern, my mom's from Oklahoma and that's how I got the name.”

“I fucking hate Lynyrd Skynyrd, I've always hated Lynyrd Skynyrd. Fuckin' backwards ass hillbilly shit.”

“A guy walks up to me and asks 'What's Punk?'. So I kick over a garbage can and say 'That's punk!'. So he kicks over the garbage can and says 'That's Punk?', and I say 'No, that's trendy!'”

“Well, you know, I look at myself in the morning and yes, yeah I-I am a God.”

“I sound like an Englishman impersonating an American impersonating an Englishman.”

“They have bad taste. I am not a good-looking guy.”

“Punk rock is dead...and I fucking killed it.”

“[Our 'Waiting' video] was totally a failure. [MTV] doesn't show any videos anymore. If we had a booty video - if we had, like, McG, with girls shaking their ass in the video -- it would probably get played. Actually, I am just really bitter right now.”

“Are you Canadian? Oh, okay, 'cause you're sure as hell acting like one right now.”

“Do you wanna have sex and get married?”

“Yeah I've met members of The Who, and "members" of The Who”

“We are not afraid to be entertainers.”

“The day you become old is the day you're not looking for new experiences anymore.”

“Slipknot sounds like Tre choking on a hairball.”

“To do something that you feel in your heart that's great, you need to make a lot of mistakes. Anything that's successful is a series of mistakes”

“Punk is dead to anyone who didn't get it in the first place”

“Music is the air that I breathe, it's the blood that pumps through my veins.”

“And for our fans, they're just crazy people anyway. I always look at people in a Green Day shirt, and I think, 'What's wrong with that person? What kind of hang-ups does that person have?' Obviously, it's not just the catchy songs, it goes deeper than that.”

“What do you mean we walked around in girls clothes? We walked around in dresses and they happened to be ours!”

“Our passion is our strength.”

“Nobody leaves this band unless it's in a coffin”

“Stand the fuck up! This isn't a fucking Coldplay show!”

“It's my fucking life and you know what, nobody invited you...so there's the door...see ya!”

“My goal is to be one of the biggest bands in the world, and I have never been bashful about saying that.”

“I heard Davey Havok has a brand of eyeliner out now... it's AFI-liner”

“You have to be forgiven of your sins now so you can start sinning all night long”

“Y'know?”

“You don't mow another man's lawn!”

“...and sometimes I think she may have married the end of the world.”

“Let's shake some shit up - that's all you can do.”

“I'm a songwriter — I'm obligated to keep pushing myself.”

“Of course, you also want something that'll make one hell of a killer tattoo.”

“Do you have a problem? I have a gun. I'll shoot you. No problem.”

“School is practice for the future, and practice makes perfect, but nobody's perfect, so why practice?”

“Rock 'n' roll can be fun and dangerous at the same time.”

“What has two thumbs, speaks French, and likes blowjobs? *points thumbs at himself* Moi.”

“It's MISTER American Idiot to you...”

“The day you become old is the day you're not looking for new experiences anymore.”

“You can't live on planet rock star 24/7; you have to be down and dirty and have some fun.”

“You have to search the absolute demons of your soul to make a great record.”

“I hate celebrities. I really hate them.”

“There's nothing wrong with being a loser, it just depends on how good you are at it.”

“Yeah fuck me! I wish all of you could fuck me!”

“Woodstock was about the closest thing to anarchy I've ever seen in my whole life, and I didn't like it.”

“I'm still wearing the pants I had in the eleventh grade”

“I'm not gonna say anything inspirational; I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot”