Quotes About Nonconformity

From an early age I didn't buy into the value systems of working hard in a nine-to-five job. I thought creativity, friendship and loyalty and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable was much more interesting.

Fortunately, unlike my teachers and classmates, my parents never forced gender roles or even a ended identity on me. I grew up on a farm, so all that mattered was working hard.

I am a person who believes in asking questions, in not conforming for the sake of conforming. I am deeply dissatisfied - about so many things, about injustice, about the way the world works - and in some ways, my dissatisfaction drives my storytelling.

Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster's terms, 'nirvana' means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that's pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

In my world, of course, it don't matter. You could be a gangster with a dress, you could be a gangster with baggy pants.

Being different gives the world color.

In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.

Never did much art till I was in my 30s, except for painting video sets, designing record covers and T-shirts, and making zines and stuff. I thought I was too punk for art and felt grossed out by white-room galleries and art people.

Any time people are breaking outside the norm and playing something that isn't expected - that feels like punk to me.

I'm tired of ignoring that I march to a different beat.

I'm tired of labels. This is my label right here: El Cucuy.

To be honest I don't really feel like I'm a part of the industry. I don't get awards because the powers that be don't really like me. I'm not like everyone else, I won't do what everyone else does.

Teachers, people, and, to be honest, some of my classmates didn't understand me. I was the person they didn't like because I would always speak my mind and had a lot of energy. I'd be bouncing around all the time, being very opinionated.

There are two rules I've always tried to live by: turn left, if you're supposed to turn right; go through any door that you're not supposed to enter. It's the only way to fight your way through to any kind of authentic feeling in a world beset by fakery.

Like most people, I wanted and still want to live by my own rules.

Companies that tend to survive are the rebels.

If Jesus Christ came back today, He and I would get into our brown corduroys and go to the nearest jean store and overturn the racks of blue denim.

I was always being told to calm down, to chill out, to slow down. I was a bad toddler, I was a bad child, I was a bad teenager.

My message to women is it's okay not to toe the party line on every issue. You don't have to be a puppet or a mouthpiece for your party on every issue. You can be an independent thinker; you can take it issue by issue, and that's okay. You shouldn't be told, 'You can't sit with us.'

I've never been a guy who had more than a toe in Hollywood anyway, so my toe is more easily lopped off than most.

I don't toe the party line all the time.

We never want to toe the line.

No man or woman should be denied the fruits of his labor simply because they refuse to toe a partisan or political line.

I don't like guys who are conventional. I'm an achiever; he has to be an achiever. I admire drive, I admire ambition. I like a guy who keeps my on my toes.