Signing to a major is the price of an education. We don't care what they do to us. The credibility of indie labels is shit. Nicky (1991) The whole indie mentality that grew up from punk onwards just seemed so bullshit to us, because the most subversive, really important group in the world were Public Enemy, and they were on Colombia (CBS/Sony, the Manics' label). The level of corruption on an indie label is just on a smaller scale. Richey (1992) Music industry is the easiest thing. The press, easy. Press agents, easy. All of them, easy. There's all these little boys going around being scared by it. It's all gone wrong. The independent mentality of the press sums it up. They're all tossers. Richey (1991) Everyone we talk to, we say 'We're not signing unless it's a contract for just one double album, one debut double'. Then we'll make enough money from that to last forever. Nicky (1991) 'Everything Must Go' was a proper hit because blokes in my mum's betting shop were whistling it. James (1996) To be universal, you've got to stain the consciousness of the people. You've got to dig out a truth that everybody knows, but doesn't want to hear, then tell it in a manner that's so articulate and so aesthetically indignant, so beautiful, that they've got to accept it back in their lives again. James (1996) We've had quite a few letters saying were a band parents like, because we're quite moral and intelligent. I think they've gained that impression from the new album (Everything Must Go). They might not be so keen if they heard us do 'Repeat'. Nicky (1997) We know it's a pointless existence being in a band. It's not a worthwhile job, like being a doctor or a nurse. There are people who work for nothing saving badgers or otters. Richey (1991) It's the ideal prototype. Do one brilliant album then disappear, gain everything then give it away, create this franchise then scrap it. James (1991) Whatever happens to us, at least we'll know that we always tried to be a brilliant band. We've set ourselves up to be compared with the greatest rock bands ever. We've always set out to be something worthwhile, that meant something real and valuable - to make records about ideas and attitudes that are important and real, and that no one else is doing. To be the band we never had when we were growing up. Richey (1991) If we'd fulfilled the promise of the ten million albums then I'd be running for the President of America by now. It wouldn't have changed us... except maybe to accelerate or decline. Nicky (1996) Even Richey's self-mutilation was very private. His fuck-ups were not on public display. There was a working class disgust - cover it up and get on with it. I have a concept of a working-class rage which is in some people. It's in us. It's in Liam Gallagher, Linford Christie, Nigel Benn and Paul Gascoigne. The desire to prove yourself. Nicky (1996) We signed to Sony for a lot of money, but none of us bought anything, except for portable CD players and stuff. Then, two months later, another one came out that was thinner and I bought that one. It was no value in my life, it just means I have a smaller CD player. Richey (1991) Whatever we've achieved, we never see it as any kind of achievement. Nicky (1994) My mind is not cluttered with the day-to-day necessities of staying alive. I'm not worried about 'if I don't pay this bill the gas is gonna get cut off'. Because I just chuck some money to somebody and it gets paid. Richey (1994) I had some fun a couple of days ago. That's my lot for a while. Sean (1994) When the gigs are getting bigger and people love you more and there's all this euphoria, it's harder to get quite so angry. Nicky (1997)

The band was never about self-hate, it was about injustice in society and with The Holy Bible it became too inward-looking for my liking... It was never the intention to carry on in that vein, but now we're destined to be frozen in time as this myth. The only way we could ever break out of that now is to completely shed all our old fans, which I don't want to do. Nicky (1996) We were never a fanclub kind of band. We were hardly known for, you know, 'we love our fans'. We were never the kind of band that would hang around signing autographs or whatever, but I think ultimately we gave them something a bit more special than that. We gave them a part of our lives. Nicky (1996) As long as we're the absolute antithesis of another main voice in pop music, then that's justification. A lot of groups who're massive now, like Blur or, especially, Pulp, they've got big by creating a certain empathy with their audience. And I don't think we're doing that now. James (1996) If you start off at a certain level of intensity, you'll always be judged by that. It's easy, especially in a world as impatient as unforgiving as pop, to be rendered irrelevant by your past actions. James (1996) I'll only be happy if we keep changing and moving forward, which is perhaps why the second album upset me a bit. I'm very protective of our history, and I wouldn't want to sully it. James (1996) The fact that 95 per cent of New Musical Express readers say they feel an affinity with Richey, or feel the need to support him, pre-empts the fact that the last five per cent think he's a cunt. They actually think he's playing up to the people who feel an affinity for him, for what he went through. They feel it's just another angle, that's all. James (1994) I'm just as happy having people loathe me as I am to have them love me. Music's got safe and ordinary; it'd be good if a few more bands tried to get those sort of opinions forced on them. Richey (1993) We don't want to reach the music papers, we just want to reach The Sun, The Star, The Mirror. That's what most people read. We'd rather be sensationalised that just be another NME band and get critical respect. Critical respect is the easiest thing in the world because journalists are so crap. Nicky (1990) We know they (Sony) completely own us, they can do anything they want with us. They can drop us... In fact they said, 'If you want, you can come in and smash the place up, it would be good press'. It wouldn't be good press - we'd end up paying for it. Richey (1991) All Richey does is go into London, drives around in the Sony limousine, goes to Soho strip joints, spends £300 on the band's American Express card, comes back covered in love bites and asks how the track's going. I think that's the thing that's given me the most pride in this band. Nicky (1992) We wanted to sign to the biggest label in the world, put out a debut album that would sell 20 million and then break up. Get massive and then just throw it all away. Richey (1993) Whether we sell millions and millions of albums, or we fail abjectly, we'll still have said everything we have to say in one double album. We don't want to look beyond that, because we'd just be treating it as a career. If you throw it away when you're the biggest band in the world, then you're bound to get respect. Richey (1991) We signed to Sony for a quarter of a million in advance and £400,000 to make the album. Nicky (1991) I think a lot of our fans are motivated by the fact that other people hate them because they like us. Nicky (1991) A lot of girls of 14, 15 love the band. I think they see us raging on their side. I hate men. Males don't seem to have any self-control any more; something catches their eye and they don't see why they shouldn't have it. Nicky (1992)