Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
H. L. MenckenI think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it’s not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That’s how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be a musician.
Dave GrohlI’ve been reckless, but I’m not a rebel without a cause.
Angelina JolieIn fact, you couldn’t give me anything to make me go back to being a teenager. Never. No, I hated it.
J. K. Rowling‚In Utero‘ was the first time I’d made an album that reached into the dark side. I remember the conflict and the uncertainty. I remember all those things when I hear ‚Pennyroyal Tea.‘
Dave GrohlRebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.
Albert CamusMethods of thought which claim to give the lead to our world in the name of revolution have become, in reality, ideologies of consent and not of rebellion.
Albert CamusHistory shows us that in times of people feeling like they are in need of some sort of rebellion or protests, the artists rise because the poetry we create about pain and its relationship to culture in the world begins to soothe and heal people who are feeling confused or afraid.
Lady GagaNixon represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise.
Hunter S. ThompsonAlthough I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.
Anne Frank‚Lives‘ is one of those books I should really have written when I was younger. It is the classic childhood, adolescence, breakthrough-into-maturity book. Every beginning writer has that material – and after that, you’re not sure what you can do.
Alice MunroFor me, great music doesn’t just have to fall into one category or one genre and I love appreciating all kinds of music.
Taylor SwiftPeople crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have most to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.
Edmund BurkeI went to see ‚Phantom of the Opera‘ with my grandma and my mom when I was very little. The stage, the voice, the music… Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been a massive inspiration to me for some time – the storytelling, that deliciously somber undertone in his music.
Lady GagaIt doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.
H. L. MenckenPride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.
Alexander PopeThe only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Albert CamusI’m so happy I discovered early how wonderful music makes me feel.
AuroraI can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.
Napoleon BonaparteRebellions of the belly are the worst.
Francis BaconYou see, rebellion, and the disobedience it causes, keeps us from having the power of God that’s available to us as Christians.
Joyce MeyerI was so upset with what was going on in the world. I just couldn’t stand the idea of being people tortured and that we even had such a thing as war. I hated the older generation, who had not done anything about it. Punk was a call-to-arms for me.
Vivienne WestwoodThe reason why I am proud of my part in the punk movement is that I think it really did implant a message that was already there. The hippies told it to me, but punk made it something cool for people to stand up for, which is that we do not believe government, that we are against government.
Vivienne WestwoodWe are the people our parents warned us about.
Jimmy BuffettThere is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.
Albert CamusI mean, I never liked being told what to do. It’s one of the reasons I dropped out of school.
Dave GrohlSons have always a rebellious wish to be disillusioned by that which charmed their fathers.
Aldous HuxleyI can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don’t like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don’t like to be shaped by society.
Charles BukowskiThere’s certainly a side of me that isn’t completely… sane. Or completely ‚even‘ all the time. We all have our dark sides.
Angelina JolieRebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.
Khalil GibranThe part that always shocked me was the inter-community violence among the chimps: the patrols and the vicious attacks on strangers that lead to death. It’s an unfortunate parallel to human behavior – they have a dark side just as we do. We have less excuse, because we can deliberate, so I believe only we are capable of true calculated evil.
Jane GoodallMusic has an intrinsic meaning, which has always been mysterious to me.
Jordan PetersonWhen the first big paycheque with ‚Dumb And Dumber‘ hit, I went: ‚Gosh, I wonder if this will affect my performance. Will I do a take and think, was that worth $7 million?‘ But that never happened. If anything, it made me rebel against that thing when people who get rich start playing it safe.
Jim CarreyThe effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.
The WeekndRebellion is what you make of it. When you’ve been on a tour bus for two months straight, and then you get in your car and drive wherever you want, that can feel rebellious.
Taylor SwiftLet’s face it. No kid in high school feels as though they fit in.
Stephen KingI don’t mind telling a dark side.
Clint EastwoodI’d love it if American kids were listening to Muslim music.
Brian EnoI tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.
Clint EastwoodI wish all teenagers can filter through songs instead of turning to drugs and alcohol.
Taylor SwiftI used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to ‚get‘ any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera.
Brian EnoEvery act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.
Albert CamusI had the classic 40 meltdown. I did. It’s embarrassing. It was pretty funny. But then I recovered. To me, it was like a second adolescence. Hormonally, my body was changing, my mind was changing, and so my relationship to myself and the world around me came to this assault of finiteness.
Keanu ReevesIn order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.
Albert CamusBefore recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context.
David ByrneYou think I’m going to ask these sweet 14 year olds to ask their parents to buy a $100 ticket then run around in latex and lip sync? No way.
Lady GagaI am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.
Emily DickinsonI sometimes have a tendency to walk on the dark side.
J. K. RowlingI find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
David ByrneWhatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie… a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.
George OrwellWhen I was fourteen and first started going out, I always wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. So I would go to the club in a polo T-shirt and pants and sneakers and a hat on backward, just so I would not be dressed like other girls.
RihannaIt’s true the punk fashion itself was iconographic: rips and dirt, safety pins, zips, slogans, and hairstyles. These motifs were so iconic in themselves – motifs of rebellion.
Vivienne WestwoodYes, I’m still going to misbehave!
Amy WinehouseMusic for me, it demands full concentration.
Paulo CoelhoI wasn’t a pretty girl. I was six feet tall at 15, you know.
Maya AngelouSometimes, wearing a scarf and a polo coat and no makeup and with a certain attitude of walking, I go shopping or just look at people living. But then, you know, there will be a few teenagers who are kind of sharp, and they’ll say, ‚Hey, just a minute. You know who I think that is?‘ And they’ll start tailing me. And I don’t mind.
Marilyn MonroePoetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.
Alice WalkerIn ninth grade, I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn’t been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A’s without taking a book home. I didn’t go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam.
Bill GatesAt twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.
Marilyn MonroeSay there’s a white kid who lives in a nice home, goes to an all-white school, and is pretty much having everything handed to him on a platter – for him to pick up a rap tape is incredible to me, because what that’s saying is that he’s living a fantasy life of rebellion.
Eminem