Quotes About Nonconformity

What made Einstein special was his impertinence, his nonconformity, and his distaste for dogma. Einstein's genius reminds us that a society's competitive advantage comes not from teaching the multiplication or periodic tables but from nurturing rebels. Grinds have their place, but unruly geeks change the world. (Walter Issacson, Wired)

Nonconformists aren't just going against the grain; they're going against the brain. Either their brains aren't taking the easy way out to begin with, or in standing apart from their peers, these students are standing up to their biology.

If a man's got talent and guts to buck society, he's obviously above average. You want to hold on to him. You straighten him out and turn him into a plus value. Why throw him away? Do that enough and all you've got left are the sheep.

How glorious it is – and also how painful – to be an exception.

I do not take orders from Washington, and I suggest that no one else should either.

To be in a band, at least according to the rules of rock in the 1970s, one must know how to play an instrument. But rather than waste time solving that problem, No Wavers ignored it. The point was simply to make music, not to learn how first.

I didn't grow up watching TV or going to McDonald's or listening to mainstream music. Like, the casting agents are looking elsewhere for the cheerleader role.

The thing about 'Watchmen' that people should know is that when it came out there was absolutely nothing like it. Up until then, comics were about the same thing: a guy in tights fighting another guy in tights and saving the girl - that was it.

If someone says 'grunge' or 'punk,' you know what the sound is, but if you say 'No Wave,' it's kind of mysterious. That was the most interesting part and should have been the most inspirational thing about it... here's this collective sonic insanity, and none of it sounds anything alike.

People can talk about punk all they want, but after new wave put that down, metal is the voice of the disenfranchised and that need to become unhinged. That's why it appeals to so many people when they are younger and carries over when those people, at 40, don't want to grow up.

I don't follow waves or trends or emotions.

I like to be a free spirit. Some don't like that, but that's the way I am.

It's cool to be different and just be who you are and shock people in a good way.

Lil Wayne, he's always been different. Like, he don't care what it is, he just gon' go out and rock out.

I don't like the clean-shaven boy with the necktie and the good job. I like desperate men, men with broken teeth and broken minds and broken ways. They interest me. They are full of surprises and explosions.

The spirit of house music, electronic music, in the beginning was to break the rules, to do things in many different ways.

Growing up, I've always made a point to not be placed in a box.

I love to come to L.A. because it's one of the most inspiring places because there are no rules.

My life has been about choosing different things from most people think that I should have chosen. It always has been about my hapiness and peace of mind therfore I have never stratagised or planned my career.

Break the rules - put a plant or a floral arrangement in a room that you wouldn't expect!

There's something to be said for any boy growing up among lots of other boys who like to play basketball and football, while all I wanted to do was put on musicals. Mentally, I was always in my own world.

I drove my Mum crazy, because I wouldn't go out and play football or join the Boy Scouts, I'd just sit at home and play the guitar.

I have no interest in owning a football club; I don't play golf; I don't like horseracing and I'd rather become a professional bungee jumper than enter politics.

I've never been interested in playing the boring ingenue.