"I could write songs as bad as
Wham's if I really felt the urge to,
but what's the point?"

"We're the kind of group that attracts people who get very obsessed by what we do and why we do it."

"I wouldn't want to think people doted on us, hung on every word, or wanted to look like us."
     - Trouser Press 7/80

"I think the rock'n'roll myth of living on the edge is a pile of crap."
     - Spin 7/87

"Some of the older rock generation are boring old farts because they were fucking hideous even when they were young. "
     - The Hit, 1985

Q: what's the funniest thing Lol has ever done?
A: pretend to be part of the group
     - Cure News #6, 1/89

Q: why do you all victimise Lol?
A: because he is useless.
     - Cure News #6 1/89

"Most of the time I'm a professional idiot. I really don't care about what other people think, which can be a bad thing."
     - The Hit, 1985

"When we started I wasn't the singer. I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs."
     - J.D. Considine 1989

"I've had enough of being perceived as a doomy goth casualty."
     - NME 05/96

"I attempted sculpture at one point. I got a block of Bath stone, and made a head. It proved to be harder work than I thought it would be. It was the inner head, you understand. It ended up being a very Tony Hancock experience. I only got half of it done, but it looks alright in profile. Eventually, I left it in the garden covered in live yoghurt so mould would grow over it then it would be, like, you know, real art. It looks bloody awful."
     - Rolling Stone Australia 8/96

"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. "
     - Source Unknown

"I've experienced such extremes both in the band and in my personal life, feelings that last for just a few seconds at a time, that it's like a drug. After a while, when they're not there you notice the absence of it and nothing seems real anymore and nothings quite sharp enough or focused enough."
     - Spin, 7/89

"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."
     - Source Unknown

"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. "
     - Guitar Player 9/92 - Robert talking about his state of mind during Pornography

"Originally I was going to take perverse satisfaction in making a depressing album. "
     - Spin, 7/89 - Robert talking about his fellings and attitudes behind making Disintegration

"Q: Do any/some/most/all of your songs have any kind of meaning? Or do you just sit down and write words on a page and it's done with??? I've been really curious about this for a long, long time. The Cure's lyrics are so poetic and diverse, I often enjoy lying in bed before I go to sleep and reading the lyrics from any chosen album. I find that it helps to put my mind at rest and conjure up some fascinating images that send me into dreamland much easier. Also, do you write the lyrics first or the music?

A: All of the songs mean something, although in varying degrees. They are usually created separately - I have a bag full of words, and when one of us comes up with a good piece of music, I look in the bag to see if anything there will fit. If nothing does, I sit down and try to put down on paper what the music makes me feel; very rarely will a piece of writing inspire a piece of music."
     - CANOE (Canadian Online Explorer) 8/96 OK, OK...I only stuck this in because I asked this question...honest!

"The presumption that everything I write is equally heartfelt is one that shouldn't be made. On albums two, three and four, and to a lesser extent, Disintegration, everything I wrote was an expression of extreme emotion. I used to think that if a song wasn't wrenched screaming from the inside then it wasn't valid, but now I think the only way that I can develop as a songwriter is by entertaining people. I can approach a subject from a point of view that I wouldn't necessarily hold. That's part of the fun, having developed over the years a persona that allows me to get away from things."
     - Rolling Stone Australia 8/96

"For me it's not about the sound. It's not even really about what is said. It's about the feel. The instruments change, the sound changes, the words are different. It's the feeling that stays the same. It's as if your ripping something, this seemingly small piece of yourself, out and showing it to yourself for the first time. Trying not to hide in the dark, or let it go. Admitting to yourself all of the stupid things you've ever done. Feeling the shame burn you once more -but this time cathartic. Feeling all the lies you ever thought of stating burn across your tounge like acid, to spill unused, safely into nowhere. The honesty, brutal honesty, of words that could've meant something to someone when they mean nothing to you. It's the tragedy. 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. Each time I play a song, it seems more real. Each time I hear the feeling, the pain is less. I turn it up to drown me out. But it's gone past the actual distinguishable sound of the song. All I am aware of is my soul crying. Pouring all my pain out of my mouth like liquid from a bottle. I don't need it loud, to feel. I need it loud to feel comfortable enough to pour. How many people do you know can stand before a crying soul and actually give a damn?"
     - Source Unknown

"What could be more obvious than Robert Smith, pop music's manic-depressive poster boy, naming his band's new album Wild Mood Swings? Isn't that a bit like Alanis Morissette calling her follow-up Blow Jobs and Bad Poetry, or Hootie & the Blowfish releasing Four Boring Guys and a Bag of Golf Clubs? "
     - Mr. Showbiz May 1996 Bob Remstein - Not a Robert quote, I just thought this was really funny.

"We're the kind of group that attracts people who get very obsessed by what we do and why we do it."
     - San Diego Tribune, 9/24/96