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. – Robert Smith
I wore makeup when I was at school, and I wore makeup when glam started. I started wearing it again when punk started. I’ve always been drawn to wearing it. It’s partly ritualistic, partly theatrical and partly just because I think I look better with it on. – Robert Smith
I lose myself in music because I can’t be bothered explaining what I feel to anyone else around me. – Robert Smith
It has always seemed slightly uncomfortable, the idea of politicised musicians. Very few of them are clever enough to do it; if they’re good at the political side, the music side suffers, and vice versa. – Robert Smith
I honestly don’t class myself as a songwriter. I’ve got ‘musician’ written on my passport. That’s even funnier. – Robert Smith
I became an adult in an extreme way. I was recently sorting some old photographs and I found another. – Robert Smith
Both me and my wife’s extended family all live within a 50-mile radius. Like me, a lot of them did time in London then started drifting back to the countryside and the sea. Perhaps it’s a homing instinct. – Robert Smith
I’ve always spent more time with a smile on my face than not, but the thing is, I don’t write about it. – Robert Smith
Whenever I’m home, I haven’t got any makeup on. But even in the studio, before I do vocals, I put makeup on. – Robert Smith
If you acquiesce to one interview, there’s always another waiting in the wings. Also if you’re interviewed repeatedly, you just start repeating yourself. I don’t like to do that. – Robert Smith
But everyone I know reaches a point where they throw out their arms and go beserk for a while; otherwise you never know what your limits are. I was just trying to find mine. – Robert Smith
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. – Robert Smith
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. – Robert Smith
