Talk:Robert Smith (musician)

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• Each time I play a song it seems more real.

• Every person can connect to The Cure's dreamworld where life can be insane, melancholy, anger, lost, hysterical and joyful, all at the same time. (1992)

• I became an adult in an extreme way. I was recently sorting some old photographs and I found another.

• I don't love, I hate at different degrees...

• I do a job I really, really love and I kind of have fun with. People think you can't be grown up unless you're moaning about your job.

• I hardly ever listen to any of our old stuff now. Once the songs have been recorded and put on to vinyl they become someone else's entertainment, not mine.

• I hate Madonna! She looks like she stinks! - In The Face, no. 66, October 1985, see [1]

• I never answer if someone knocks on my door and only the band and my manager have my phone number. In any case my phone doesn't ring so I never notice it. I occasionally just walk past and pick it up to see if anyone's there.

• I'd rather spend my time looking at the sky than listening to Whitney Houston.

• If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately.

• If I didn't wear make-up I couldn't get on stage. I'd be much too self conscious.

• It has nothing to do with me if there's a lot of bootlegs of the Cure; I've never objected to them, no-one's ever had their tape recorder confiscated at a Cure show, it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

• It's a bit of a crass generalisation, but people whose favourite Cure albums are Pornography and Disintegration are generally more alert and have thought about things.

• Like I can't cry for myself so I will let this song take all of the things inside I can't let anyone else see and offer it up, as if the sound were some kind of god, and my pain is some kind of sacrifice.

• Nobody notices me. Nobody thinks I'm me. But then I look less like me than most of the people coming to our concerts.

• Sometimes I'll get to the end of a song, open my eyes and there's all these faces peering at me. It's quite horrifying.

• The Press try to categorize me a 'gloom-and-doom' singer. But, take a look at Morrissey! That man's a professional moaner!

• There are countries where the organizers don't know what they're doing or what's going on - but I wouldn't name Italy and Spain!

• There's no hope of me becoming completely relaxed on stage. If I did, I'd sit down and doze off.

• When we started I wasn't the singer. I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs.

• You can't drink on an eight hour flight, pass out, and then go onstage... well you can, but then you're Spandau Ballet.

• You don't really know a song until you play it live.

• I can't remember Joy Division at all. Backstage at The Marquee is about as big as a toilet and there were always about 20 people in there. We couldn't go out to see them play because we were too nervous anyway, so how the f**k Lol noticed Ian Curtis was sad, I'll never know.

• When you read something like Patrick White you feel so hopeless... the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that they can't write songs. (1985)

• If I was to look at myself... (giggles) naked , in a full-length mirror, I wouldn't be able to pick out any of me that was better than the rest. (1986)

• A heater shorted and it burned almost everything I own. Because we were here for four months, I'd brought all my worldly goods with me. We saved my lyrics, crawling along the floor with wet towels around our heads. We had to make a chain and hold hands because I was the only one who knew where they were, I was the last in the chain. We got really told off by the firemen, it was like being back at school. They were saying "You're life's more important than your words" and I was like, "What do you know?". They were the only thing that was irreplaceable, I thought. The next day, I was sifting through the charred remains and I came across my wallet and it had two pictures of me and Mary - the first tow pictures we ever had taken together - and they were still there although a bit charred around the edges and I was really pleased. I genuinely felt happy about the fire, I didn't feel upset, I felt releif in a very banal way. (Explaining 'Pictures of you')

• Just say your insane......

• (About Lipstick)...For my girlfriend. She thinks I look nice in it. So, I think, well she wears it for me, so I'll do it for her. Besides, I don't have any lips. (1986)

• I desired to be a writer more than a performer. I've attempted writing from time to time, and it just doesn't compare to people I've read, like Dylan Thomas. It's laughable to even make comparisons, an affront to people who are much more accomplished as writers, crying out for exposure. Now I just try for my own enjoyment, to keep my brain alive. (1986)

• I remember my guitar strap broke in the middle of a song and the guitar fell on the floor and I was standing there looking at the control room and the bloke didn't take any notice, so I just picked it up and carried on playing and I later saw a run back of the video and it was like Monty Python, just a complete shambles. They just said, 'It's a great act you've got there, boys, throwing the guitars around. That's the spirit! (1979)

• I don't despair about losing touch with the Cure. It's more despairing to realise that I'll never attain the heights of a Bach or a Prokofiev... (1983)

• I had five weeks as a gardener on an industrial estate in the height of summer and they were five of the happiest weeks of my life. (1979)

• You can reach a stage where you can't differentiate between actually feeling what you are singing - or just performing that feeling. That can make you do drastic things. (1986)

• When I was eight I learnt guitar until my fifty year old guitar teacher made a pass at me... (1985)

• When I feel I've got too much money, I tend to give it away to charities and things anyway. I have a weird sense of ethics - I don't think anybody should have too much money. I've got everything I want already - I hate having a lot of things. (1985)

• I used to be very envious of people who had faith; and without being cynical, I guess I still am. But it's very hard to believe in the concept of faith without ever having experienced it. (1979)

• I spend more time smiling than I do crying. (1985)

• There was one in some magazine a couple of months ago where you had to score points to find out your ideal career. I spent ages doing it. You had to score 45 to be a singer, but I only reached 27. It said I should be a shop keeper! (1986)

• I don't drink as much as the British press has made it sound, but then, of course, I lie a lot to the press." (1985)

• ... if you could accept that certain people were more intelligent than others, then you have to accept that some people can feel more than others. (1985)

• The idea of an afterlife is simply there to give existence a meaning - to give sixty years of banality a sense of purpose. I mean, the idea of an afterlife is just as valid as the idea of a hot dinner - it all depends if you're hungry. (1985)

• I'd prefer to have bigger eyes, but then I'd look like a completely different person so I'd have to have a new set of lips as well. I'd quite like to swap my internal organs. My liver's going to say 'I can't cope with this any longer and I'm going to give up pretty soon. (1986)

• I hate not liking a concert because it makes the whole day seem redundant. (1985)

• Umm... my favorite drug is being happy. Alright, I admit it. I'm lying. My favorite drug is alcohol. (1985)

• You always think you're writing better when you're drunk, when you reach that point when you think, 'Hell, I'm being lucid now.' (1985)

• ... all the lies I tell when people interview me. It's because I do too many interviews. I bore myself if I don't make things up. It's like having your photograph taken too often - you end up not looking like yourself. (1985)

• If I'm upright, I just sway. And it's quite funny looking at the world like this. You can see up people's noses! (1985)

• I wouldn't like to think people doted on us, hung on every word or wanted to look like us. (1980)

• I'll wake up one morning and won't want to go onstage anymore. Then I'll probably get bored and reform the band. (1985)

• My first crush was Catwoman. She was very slinky, pretty horny. (1986)

• About four or five years ago I threw everything away because I'd started to hoard silly things like beermats from a good night out. If you've got to run out in the middle of the night because the place is on fire, the only thing you should really take is your teddy bear." (1985)

• (About The Lovecats)...We've only tried playing it live three times, and each time it's been a complete disaster. I'd love to be in some piano bar at three in the morning and go (snaps his fingers) 'And a-one and a-two...' (1983)

• Because of my split personality only half of me can be happy at one time. If I'm playing live one half of me wishes to be in the Outer Hebrides. Yet when I'm totally alone I want all that back." (1984)

• I would like to be graceful about my decline, rather than flaunt it... we've just about reached maximum popularity. It will get to the point where we can't handle it. (1985)

• I think that some people who are considered to be 'plain', are really gorgeous. It's more important to be nice. (1985)

• I'd never iron anything anyway. I did buy an ironing board, but I use it to hang clothes over and put things on. I think people look more homely and cuddly when they're crumpled anyway." (1986)

• Underlying everything I do is the idea that you should constantly reevaluate what you're doing and why. (1986)

• School discouraged you from learning. Rather than give you a point of view toward life, discipline was hammered into you. I was never actively belligerent, never rude, but I was disquieting because I argued rationally. I attempted to undermine them, and they took it as a challenge. (1986)

• I've suffered from nightmares on and off throughout my life. They stick in my mind. Most recently, I've had this one where I was like a chief executioner, and I had to decide who was to be beheaded then behead them! It was horrifying, I woke up sweating I felt so... unclean." (1986)

• There's only three bands I'd play for. Only New Order, the Bunnymen and the Banshees have that sense of purpose. (1983)