I don’t want The Cure to fizzle out doing 45-minute shows of greatest hits. That would be awful for our legacy. – Robert Smith
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. – Robert Smith
I’m in the strange position of the world drifting away from me, but you know what? I’m actually quite content with that. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I don’t feel like, ‘Oh God, I’m being left behind.’ – Robert Smith
Apart from the fact that I’ve got a strange job, I do lead a fairly normal life. I do my own shopping. I don’t feel constrained by who I am because of what I do; I often feel disappointed by my lack of ability. I get frustrated at myself, but I think everyone does. – Robert Smith
I had no desire to be famous; I just wanted to make the greatest music ever made. I didn’t want anyone to know who I was. – Robert Smith
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. – Robert Smith
People think it’s funny that I enjoy dreaming so much. I just use it as a form of entertainment. It’s very private. I don’t see my dreams as separate. I mean, half the time I’m wandering around dreaming anyway. – Robert Smith
Whatever I was doing, even when I was at school, I never repressed anything that I felt. I wasn’t flamboyant; I was actually quite reticent most of the time. But if I felt I had to do something, I did it. – Robert Smith
I don’t care where the Cure is placed in the pantheon of rock. I don’t care if we’re perceived as relevant. We’re never worried how we fit in. I don’t even want to fit in. – Robert Smith
The very first concert I ever went to on my own was actually Rory Gallagher. In a one-month period in 1973 or ’74, I saw him, Thin Lizzy and the Rolling Stones. I wasn’t really a big Rory Gallagher fan, but I thought his guitar playing was fabulous. But Thin Lizzy, they were fabulous. – Robert Smith
Irony is the recourse of the weak-minded wimp, I think. I hate bands that deliver their songs with knowing smiles on their faces, so that if those songs fall flat they can say ‘Ah well, we never really meant it anyway.’ It’s so dishonest. – Robert Smith
My earliest memories are sitting on the beach at Blackpool, and I know that if I went back, it would be horrible. I know what Blackpool’s like – it’s nothing like I imagined it was as a child. – Robert Smith
Everything I do has the tinge of the finite, of my own demise. At some point you either accept death or you just keep pushing it back as you get older and older. I’ve accepted it. – Robert Smith
Hendrix was the first person I had come across who seemed completely free, and when you’re nine or 10, your life is entirely dominated by adults. So he represented this thing that I wanted to be. Hendrix was the first person who made me think it might be good to be a singer and a guitarist – before that I wanted to be a footballer. – Robert Smith
Nobody notices me. Nobody thinks I’m me. But then I look less like me than most of the people coming to our concerts. – Robert Smith
When we started I wasn’t the singer. I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs. – Robert Smith
You can’t drink on an eight hour flight, pass out, and then go onstage… well you can, but then you’re Spandau Ballet. – Robert Smith
I get a much more extreme reaction when I have my hair really short. I look thuggish when I shave my head and wear big boots. I walk into a newsagent and people think I’m going to jump the counter. It’s a much more extreme reaction. – Robert Smith
I have never liked Morrissey, and I still don’t. I think it’s hilarious, actually, what things I’ve heard about him, what he’s really like, and his public persona is so different. He’s such an actor. – Robert Smith
I’ve never regretted not having children. My mindset in that regard has been constant. I objected to being born, and I refuse to impose life on someone else. – Robert Smith
I wouldn’t want to think people doted on us, hung on every word, or wanted to look like us. – Robert Smith
I could write songs as bad as Wham’s if I really felt the urge to, but what’s the point? – Robert Smith
There were only two times in my life when I’ve actually felt down about things and gotten myself into a full mental mess. One of the times was in 1982. I had a horrible time for a few months and felt pretty desperate. Then again in 1984, for various reasons, not all of them within my control. Since then, I just wander in and out of black moods. – Robert Smith
When punk came along, I found my generation’s music. I grew up listening to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, ’cause that was what got played in the house. But when I first saw the Stranglers, I thought, ‘This is it.’ – Robert Smith
If you feel alienated from people around you, it’s because no one tries to understand you. – Robert Smith
I’m happy quite a lot of the time. I’ve done far more than I ever thought I would have, so I’d be very hard-pressed to walk around miserable. – Robert Smith
