Quotes About Nonconformity

Things just are the way they are... However, NOWHERE in ANY law, dogma, or rules is it mandated -be it sanctioned, decreed, or wrought by divine imposition- that ANY OF IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY!

What is your type?"I shrugged. "Non-existent.

I cannot be bound to the confines of your rules. I am the exception to them.

Live like you want, not how others want you to live.

I would rather die an individual than live my life as a clone.

You didn't have to have choruses, you didn't have to have lead guitar solos, you didn't have to have anything," said Watt. The lyrics were basically rants by both Watt and Boon that they dubbed "spiels." "We just say what we say

punk rock could be anything anyone wanted it to be.

punk rock doesn't have to mean hardcore or one style of music or just singing the same lyrics," he said. "It can mean freedom and going crazy and being personal with your art.

The greatest thing about punk rock for me, as an outsider, was that the concept that you had to be allowed in was no longer valid. You could be operating in a vacuum, you could be as fucked up an individual as you cared to be, and if you did something of worth, all these external conditions were immaterial.

You don't have to sound like the Sex Pistols, all you have to be is different to provoke such animosity.

No one could explain why a punk would ever follow any mainstream rule about how many songs you could put on a single.

punk rock is unique and individual and is not for everybody. So almost by definition it can't be popular.

my grandfather had no regard for anyone who could be scandalized by a shirt.

We stand out, we strike out, we do our own thing, go our own way. The herd of independent minds, somebody called it.

Most people think they're not most people.

He wore the same shorts and t-shirts to work for days on end. He refused to wear shoes with laces. He refused to wear watches or even his wedding ring. To calm himself at work he often blared heavy metal music.

Who cares what other people think?" says Alexander. "It's not their team.") In

They stopped testing me. And if you're not going to test me, I'm gonna smoke!

if i followed any of the rules, i wouldn't be where i am today

Like Frank Sinatra, I'm doing it my way.

As a singer-songwriter I definitely think I push the mould a lot.

I'd love to do the straight music thing, but that's kind of against our mission, which is to rebel against the serious singer-songwriter mentality.

Your favourite songs by your favourite bands are never the singles. It's when they've done exactly what they wanted without any compromise and not worried about the reaction.

Whether they are actual poets or their music exemplifies a poetic sensibility, generally speaking, the Americana artist shuns commercial compromise in favor of a singular vision. Which resonates with me.