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•At a MCIS concert, a group of fans brought a sign that said PLAY DROWN!!! In remark Billy said: "Look at that poster over there. Interesting! Too bad we can't read...." and then went on to play Landslide.

•For the first encore at a MCIS show the pumpkins surprisingly busted into a cover of about 30 seconds of Bush's swallow. Billy finally broke off and said: "I just wondered what he was swallowing." and the crowd went crazy.

•After playing a song from Siamese dream, Billy spoke to the crowd of fans saying: "This song is from our 5th album, Siamese Squid." Some people looked lost and didn't get the joke.

•Billy said this at the Nov. 6th concert in Worchester:


•Billy says: "We've had an interesting year.... We lost a friend. We lost a drummer. But I hope we haven't lost any fans. To anyone who wonders, we're fine."

•A fax from Billy to a reporter who said the Pumpkins sucked:
"I'm glad that i'm such a good rhymer,
better than being a social climber,
just because i'm a bit brighter,
than some fucking writer"

•"Disarm is about when I became an asshole".

•"Stoppen sie throwing sie cuppen".

•"If practice makes perfect and nobody's perfect then why practice?"

•"I'm Irish and born on St. Patrick's Day. I'm lucky sevens"

•"Music's pretty cool and I'm glad to be a part of it. Sometimes when you reach for the stars, you end up in the f----ing shit. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in America. I don't believe in rock-and-roll. I believe in me"

•"Was it a hit song? The answer is no. Did it have a video? No. Do people cite it as their favorite song? No. Do they scream for it at concerts? No. But does it mean something to me? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes."...Billy on Spaceboy

•"If I had spent fourteen months in a small room with Jesus, I'd want to fist fight with him."

•"For a 6-foot-3 guy with a whiny voice, I've done alright."

•"Stay in school. Lie to your teachers, but stay in school."

•"We are, we have been, and always will be The Smashing Pumpkins"

•"Everyone has a misguided perception of my brain...When people ask me questions about being sad, or thinking sad, or wanting to be sad, or do I listen to sad songs, it makes me think that I must be sad"

•"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 your a fag.' I said,'Well they already think I'm an asshole.".

•"I think it's probably because we didn't dumb things like, 'Wave your hands in the air' that we suffered a little, but I would rather suffer and not be a fool."....Billy on playing live

•"I'm not going to die glamorously. I'll probably be eating a Twinkie, take a bite, and fall over."

•"If you hear one of our songs on the radio and it's chopped up- You call that radio sation, and tell them they're fucking stupid!"

•"We've worked out a plan where eventually we'll replace ourselves with machines. So roughly by the year 2002 we'll sit at home and the machine will go on tour."

•"Hey Hey Hey...You're right,"- Billy answering to a fan who said,"Hey Hey Hey...You're Billy Corgan!

•"I'd probably be the guy your brother buys pot from or something." when asked what he'd be doing if he wasnt playing music.

•"Thinking about the future and thinking about the past is really only a way of ignoring the present."

•"I fucking told you that this town sucks! Did I fucking TELL you this town sucks? I fucking TOLD you. I didn't want to play here, and now these fuckers want my fucking autograph!"- Billy in Tulsa '94.

•"I'm about to take the stupid shirt off- but the band wont let me."-referring to his famous ZERO shirt.

•"It could've been any vegetable."-on the origin of the name Smashing Pumpkins.

•"The simplest way I can understand therapy is that we're born a certain way, we're taught to be something different, and we spend our whole lives trying to unravel it."

•"Babyface is going to produce our next album."-at the Grammy post show.

•"At this point in time I actually don't know who I am."

•"Well, usually I wait until the end of the show to apologize for sucking, but I'd like to take this oppurtunity to say that we suck, so sorry. I guess what we need to do is play some Stone Temple Pilots or Bush."-during a MCIS concert.

•"Just let me make this analogy: You want to go to the circus, and to get into the circus it costs you 5 pence. So, you stand on line and you don't have 5 pence, but you really want to go to the circus. So someone comes along and says,"Well I'll take you in the circus and I'll pay the 5 pence, but you gotta pay me back later. And you get taken to the circus, they take you out. "So when are you gonna pay me back?" "I don't know. I'll get around to it sooner or later." That's the story of the band."-on Vieuphoria talking to the psychiatrist.

•"Wow. That's it?!?! That's all we get? We won all these awards and that's all we get?!?! Beavis and Butthead got more time than us!"-during an interview at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards Post-Show.

•"Are you all ready to have a rockin mashed potato time?"-during a MCIS concert

•"I hate how in magazine pictures, they always stick me somewhere in the back. It means they don't think I'm the cute one."

•You see all those empty seats? That's not who we play for-we play for you. I want you to remember, we won't forget you-so don't you forget about us."- to the real fans who stayed till the end of a MCIS concert.

•"I guess we should apologize now for making you all miss the super bowl. If it makes you feel any better, um, in the second quarter the players decided that they were all going to choose the path of non-violence and they all gave up football. So the game was suspended anyway so you're not missing anything."- talking to fans at a concert on the same day as the Super Bowl.

•"Are you ready to rock? Well, you came to the wrong place."

•"Remember, Nagroc is Corgan spelt backwards. Don't you fucking forget that!"

•"I cut all my fucking hair off, thats what i did. It seems like a very obvious thing, but this idiot can't seem to see it,"-Billy during a concert after someone asked where his hair went.

•"I said rat in a cage, not monkey from a fucking wire,"-after seeing a guy hanging off the balcony after bullet with butterfly wings during a MCIS concert.

•We are proud to be the first full services alternative rock band. What does that mean to you? You want service, we'll give it to you....If you want to hear an Oasis song, we'll play one."

•"My favorite are the people who sit down during the songs they don't like and stand up during the ones they do- those are my favorite people. Go ahead and sit down cause you're not gonna like this one so..If you're bored already, I would, I would just go. You've already heard most of the hits so...We'll keep trying though."

•"Alright, dancers...and you are dancers. Don't disappoint me or I will hurt you. James will now read you your rights...and a small disclaimer insuring the Smashing Pumpkins against any harm or injury should anyone fall."-talking to the fans picked to dance on stage during 1979 at a MCIS concert.

•"Bar the door, lock up the children, the satanic monsters are back in town. So, our final farewell. Thank you, thank you. We appreciate everyone stickin' around 'til the bitter, bitter end. Drive home safely if you wanna visit us. James is in room 1505 and I'm in room 1507 so if you wanna stop by...So, we hope you had a good time. We are z Smashing Pumpkins."- to the fans at a MCIS concert.

•"Before Thanksgiving, the turkey on your tables was a happy, free turkey, who could think and do as he wished. Just think about that after you're done eating on Thanksgiving."- talking to his fans during a concert around Thanksgiving.

•"How cute. A big bird doll with a zero on his chest...I am against the...disgrace of innocent sesame street dolls...I was molested by big bird himself once....when I saw that thing flying at me, it brought back alot of painful memories...I can't tell you what he did to me...But, he does have that long beak..."- reacting to when a fan threw a big bird stuffed animal at him during a concert.

•"I was a jock, but I wasn't on the sports team. I played guitar, but I dodn't hang out with the stoners. I just couldn't hang in any way, and when you're young and you can't hang, you oppose. So I was anti-everything, fuck you all."

•"It wasn't always comfortable competing against Nirvana, and it was certainly not healthy living under that shadow at times. But at least there was honor in it. We always respected that it was a great band- Pearl Jam too. But competing against Bush?!?! It's nothing to get our dick hard about, you know what I mean? There's no mojo in that!"

•"Of course I heard it-it was like a fucking bomb went off!!! It was like an OJ Simpson thing. I thought maybe I should make a note when I heard it, in case somebody was murdered,"-Billy referring to the crash he heard above his hotel room, D'arcy's room, when the television crashed on her.

•"It's like nobody knows I'm also a sports geek who sits around and watches games all day."

•"What goes on between a person and himself and the universe is their own damned business. There's no way we could ever cheapen it."

•"As a child I learned that it was more advantageous to be this creation than it was to be who I really am. But my personality is so strong that it kind of bubbled out from underneath, and it was tough to distinguish who was the faker and who was real."

•"I wish from Day One, people could would have looked at me and said, 'you're all right, come on, join the team,' but it's never been that way with me. I don't know why."

•"People think that somehow I enjoy being this unhappy person. I don΄t. I never fit in, and I never fit in because of the person I am or the person I΄m not. Deep down inside I wish I could be just a normal, stupid kid."

•"Oh, how I wish I was still on the rocket."....120 minutes 7/94

•"Physically, we overpower anybody as a band"

•"I have guitar hunch"....on Chicago Sports Channel April 1997

•"6'4'' when i stand up straight and 6'3'', when i slouch"....Chicago Sports channel April 1997

•"It's THE Smashing Pumpkins. That was my stupid idea."....Chicago Sports Channel, April 1997

•“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."

•"Well, when i was 20 and I met D'Arcy, my whole thing was music, music, music, 24-7. And i couldn't understand why D'Arcy wasn't music, music, music, 24-7. D'Arcy was like, 'I have a fucking life. It can't be that way."

•"im a pisces, and pisces have this weird inability to be completely spontaneous. We're too conscious of our actions. I've always been way too sensible for my own good"

•"Shave your head, wear a ZERO shirt. Take away your indentity. What do you have? You still have yourself"

•"rock is dead"....circus magazine

•"i wish we knew 'Enter Sandman"

•"Would I be in these silver pants!?!?"....on the BWBW video from Videography

•"We don't make music for people to take drugs to, we make music for people to live their life."

•"i guess we should just skip that song, eh?"

•"Some people, like Steve Lukather, think I'm a terrible guitar player"

•"Well, I didn't make the team, so rock 'n roll was the next thing"

•"If a man can't keep himself from doing those kinds of things with everything to lose, his band, his life, his status, his economic and whatever future...if he can't stop himself and pick himself up from that, then what's gonna stop him? Us? Us three suburbanites? It ain't gonna happen." ....from MTV Year In Rock 96

•"We had our first video fight. Do you remember what it was(To James)? You don't remember? It was if we should play in front of a white sheet or a brick wall."....MTV Rockumentary

•"Once a pumpkin, Always a pumpkin."

•"Certainly the media saturation is way worse. Now you turn on the TV, and there's fashion and culture and news aimed directly at 16-year-olds...I've met kids who get laid at 10, 12. I didn't lose my virginity until I was 18. Kids are acting grown-up, but they're not grown-up inside."

•"I've thought many times, 'I can't write this,' but on my own little planet I found the courage to write it because it was true. I put aside fear of Father being angry with me. It's hard though; the world pales in comparison with the stature of a parent. In some small-consolation way, my parents feel I'm helping people by giving them something to identify with. They feel proud in a sort of reverse way. My mom's proud of the fact that lots of kids look up to me."

•"I have gone crazy, motherfucking CRAZY"

•"We sing this song for the aliens...We're convinced the aliens would like our music." (at an Adore concert, July 19 1998)

•"Money and compassion in this day and age seem to be really novel concepts to put together", Billy on giving to charities

•"People can say, y'know, "you're such a nice person," and the next person says, "you're the worst, most horrible person I've ever met." on being a Pisces

•"Very moody...tend to be pretty lazy" Describing people who are Pisces.

•"My father's voice is actually higher than mine."

•"When I was 18 years old I tried to sing like all of my idols, and failed miserably."

•"We're missing a lot of heroes right now, and there are heroes out there...I meet 'em all the time."

•"We've proved everyone wrong before...we'll do it again."

•"My whole goal in life is to accept myself for the freak that I am."

•"We're so hip, it hurts.(chuckling)"

•"Every song I've ever written that means anything to me, James and D'Arcy were in the room."

•"Have you ever seen my teeth? Have you ever REALLY seen my teeth?"

•"My fans have to be young, and over weight...and they have to scream, 'Billy...I love you Billy....Billlyyyy....'"

•"This is not the F*CKING Jerry Springer Show! We don't all live in trailers!"

•"Thankyou for takin' a ride on the infinite sadness express. Departure time always, and arrival time never. Thankyou for being cool, great, wonderful, awesome, thankyou g'night. We are, have been, and will always be The Smashing Pumpkins. Thankyou so much. Thankyou, g'night. God bless you. Thanks." ...to some fans at a show in Vancouver, Canada.

•"You guys wanna hear Drown? We forgot. We don't know that one. Did anybody see us at the zoo? heh heh. Just wondering."

•"It's nice to play in such a historic building. As you know, they tore ours down. So, uhm, don't ever let 'em tear yours down."....talking about Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

•"I didn't know we had a fun side."

•"I love to play rock music. What I don't like is playing rock music that bores me and others to tears."

•"This is the most joyous and happy, mournful and sad year I have known."

•"If postmodernism is about people opening up all their skeletons, I'm going the other way, I don't want anyone to know anything about me anymore."

•"We are the most beloved and hated band in the world."

•"I could have done the old Pumpkin treatment and laid strings on like every song on the radio right now. I hear those power ballads and I'm ready to puke. And I helped start it."

•"Thankyou so much, we are the Smashing Poompkins. POOMPKINS!!!"....in Rio, Feb 1996.

•When asked about his liking for Regis and Kathie-Lee: "I'd rather watch them than watch trailor trash people beat eachother over the head because daddy got daughter pregnant"

•Because he was coughing due to cold: "I'm dying. this is our last show. hope you like it!"


•"Change has wrestled me to the ground. it's caressing my neck and telling me i'm very pretty. and its very frightening..."

•About Melissa: "The hard thing for me is that, if she hasn't already gone insane in Hole, and she's ALREADY going insane in the Pumpkins, what does that say about me?! [laughs]"

•"We're tragically uptight about how we play our music."

•"When they see us rock, all will be forgiven, i guess. i dunno."

•"I think a lot of alternative bands have played heavy metal in an ironic way and i think part of the reason we've taken a certain amount of shit is we never played our heavy metal ironically. [smile] we meant it. we still mean it."

•We do kind of veil what we're trying to say. We do kinda cloak things."

•We're still looking for Our Lady Peace's phone number. We haven't gotten it yet but we're gonna call 'em up and make friends with them. tell them 'thanks a lot for keeping our old music alive.'"

•About a show at MuchMusic that almost got rained out: "There was no way we were not gonna do that show outside. If i had to go out there with an acoustic guitar, not plugged into any electrical devices, and sing to the people in the first 3 rows, that's what i was gonna do."..."a lot of people had waited over 24 hours and that would have just broken our hearts to not be able to do that..."

•On playing with Jimmy for the first time in ages: "...and within one minute, it was like he'd never left and things were completely the same..."


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