Find a poet whose style you like, emulate that style, then deal with things that you know about - don't waste your time looking for your own style.' I wish I could remember who told me that, because I'd like to congraulate him. I've emulated all the old guys - Tennyson, Alexander Pope.

John Cooper Clarke

I love being on my bike, but I don't consider that a sport: it's too pleasant.

If you want to know why the coast is such an inspirational place, ask Herman Melville, Jack London, Nordhoff and Hall, Robert Louis Stevenson or Joseph Conrad. It's a glimpse of eternity. It invites rumination, the relentless whisper of the tide against the shore.

John Cooper Clarke

Inspirational You Why

The only casual item I own is a Levi's jacket.

John Cooper Clarke

T Own Only

Lyrics became important for a while in the late Seventies. Patti Smith was a poet and a rock star, as much one as the other, the distinctions were a bit blurred and then you get swept up in it. Punk poet, it's a good enough term.

John Cooper Clarke

Good You While

To make the hips the focal point of a pair of trousers is, to me, a fashion mistake.

John Cooper Clarke

Users User Use

I don't think 'Citizen Kane' stands more than one watch. Power corrupts. Who didn't know that?

John Cooper Clarke

Power Zen Who

All the best musicians started out in church; Jesus invented rock 'n' roll.

John Cooper Clarke

Music Art Vent

My look was based on the Madison Avenue guy who's just lost his job. Ivy League suit a bit scuzzed up, an outgrown layer cut and five o'clock shadow.

John Cooper Clarke

Who Venue Us

The greatest threat to any artist is surrounding themselves with people who love everything they do.

John Cooper Clarke

Love Great Art

Well, I've obviously been a great source of inspiration to the academic population of Salford! They're citing me as a major contribution to their upward trajectory!

John Cooper Clarke

War Great Well

Happiness is the target one only has to aim at in order to miss.

John Cooper Clarke

Happiness Target T

I write with pen and paper. I don't have a mobile or computer, because I know how great they are. If I did, I'd never leave the house - you'd find me in six months, dead under a pile of pizza boxes.

John Cooper Clarke

Great You Write

If you don't like The Ramones, you don't like rock 'n'roll. They're like The Beach Boys without the sea.

John Cooper Clarke

You Without Wit

Being unapologetic means never having to say you're sorry.

John Cooper Clarke

You UN T

There are only three things that stop me sleeping: hunger, the odd bad dream and cramp in the arches of my feet - it's crippling, as if somebody's trying to tie your foot in a reef knot.

John Cooper Clarke

Your You Yin

I hate chickpeas. I like hummus but I ate that before I realised it was made out of chickpeas.

John Cooper Clarke

Us T Realised

Not everyone is prepared for fame, not even at the level I got it. One minute you're just a face in the crowd, next minute everyone wants a piece of you.

John Cooper Clarke

You Wants Want

I wanted to get rich, like anyone from my background.

John Cooper Clarke

Wanted Want UN

You know how the Marvel Comics superheroes formed themselves into the Justice League of America - Batman, Flash and the rest. Why did Superman join? He never needed any help.

John Cooper Clarke

You Why Us

I enjoy gigging in industrial towns. It seems to be where I go down the best. Somewhere where they have a history of manufacturing, they're my favourite places to play.

John Cooper Clarke

History Where Us

I'm not fond of crowds. I'm no jittery neurotic, but I don't really want to be surrounded by a lot of people if I have a choice.

John Cooper Clarke

Where's the mileage in an autobiography? Anyone who writes one inevitably casts themselves as a hero, and I'm not about to do that.

John Cooper Clarke

I got to play The Vortex in London with the Buzzcocks, the Fall, me and Johnny Thunders And The Heartbreakers. That was a serious Manchester night.

John Cooper Clarke

I don't have secrets, my life's an open book.

John Cooper Clarke

I crack myself up. Even I don't know what I'm going to say next.

John Cooper Clarke

I was too old to be a punk rocker. I was a mod, that's really the only youth tribe I ever belonged to - and even then, not for very long.

John Cooper Clarke

I love Charles Baudelaire. Him and Shakespeare are the only people I think are better than me.

John Cooper Clarke

A much underrated garment, the jegging: they never need ironing and they hold their colour.

John Cooper Clarke

Where I grew up, the one unmistakable sign of homosexuality was to betray some interest in your appearance.

John Cooper Clarke

I ain't got a credit card, a mobile phone or a computer. Call me sentimental. I think that's a whole world of trouble I ain't got no business setting foot in. And you know what? It feels good.

John Cooper Clarke

There is a certain sentimental vibe in my home town of Manchester, which you would sort of expect.

John Cooper Clarke

I'd like to be rich, but without all the downside of fame.

John Cooper Clarke

I never saw a painting that would not be improved by the addition of tropical fish.

John Cooper Clarke

My dad was an electrical engineer.

John Cooper Clarke

The first time I heard rock'n'roll on a big sound system would have been at a fairground at the seaside. That's a hell of a sensory experience right there.

John Cooper Clarke

Poets are supposed to be underappreciated, don't you know? There is always a strange reaction to those who become successful in their own lifetime, and so I always felt lucky that I made the living I did out of it.

John Cooper Clarke

My trouser needs are simple: a narrow leg in a dark colour, with jean detailing.

John Cooper Clarke

If I'd have known how much fun fatherhood would be, I would have started way earlier than 45.

John Cooper Clarke

Idleness - a job that you have to go to, but not necessarily do anything - is the poet's friend.

John Cooper Clarke

I'm a great reader of credits; I never leave the cinema before they finish.

John Cooper Clarke

I love the Arctic Monkeys!

John Cooper Clarke

Somebody up there likes me. It ain't like I've followed a well trodden trajectory.

John Cooper Clarke

Find a poet whose style you like, emulate that style, then deal with things that you know about - don't waste your time looking for your own style.' I wish I could remember who told me that, because I'd like to congraulate him. I've emulated all the old guys - Tennyson, Alexander Pope.

John Cooper Clarke

I'm dead fussy about food: I don't eat junk.

John Cooper Clarke

I've got a speech impediment.

John Cooper Clarke

The very pointlessness of a sea walk is it's attractiveness to me.

John Cooper Clarke

It was a tedious saying among hippies: if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I was very much part of the problem.

John Cooper Clarke

I'm a great believer in the capsule wardrobe - a wardrobe where's there's a limited palate of black colours.

John Cooper Clarke

I love talking about anything, except for myself.

John Cooper Clarke

I was pushing for a career in poetry and of course the received wisdom was that you would never make a living at it.

John Cooper Clarke