James Mercer Quotes

I was a snot-nosed teenage skater at one point, who listened to only punk records and hung around people that had that idea of what is okay to do and what isn't okay to do.

It took me until my teenage years to realize that I was medicating with music. I was pushing back against my stupid school uniform, instructors who called me by my last name and my classmates, who, while friendly enough, were not at all inspiring.

Fitting in is boring. But it takes you nearly your whole life to work that out.

I just felt being part of my peer group so strongly. I was immersed in teen culture, but not taken in by it.

I did throw a lot of eggs into one basket, as you do in your teenage years - 'I am buying these records, I am wearing this'. I did quite a bit of that. You have to do it, wear your stupid shoes, wear your stupid hair.

The young always have the same problem – how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

When you get to your teenage years, you want to find something that you identify with. It's almost a slight rebellion; you don't want to listen to what your parents listen to anymore; you want to find your own music. That, for me, was hearing the Fugees for the first time.

I just wanted to do the things that all normal teenagers wanted to do. So I did become quite rebellious.

In high school, I decided that all of my female friends were stupid and traded them for guy friends. I loved horror movies and heavy metal and used these interests to become a 'guys' girl.'

People tell you what you have to wear and do, and I've never been a fan of it.

When I was 13 I would come to school with makeup and nail polish and I had teachers who would say, 'We can't teach you and you're not allowed in class.'

I'm not out here trying putting on an act like I'm crazy. In my opinion, everyone else is crazy. They're the ones who put on an act for you, doing what they're told in front of the camera.

Don't get caught up in fashion games. These kids probably think we're old, nark conformists or something, but really, they're just conforming in their own ways. They're conforming to nonconformity.

Joining a sub-culture, any sub-culture, for whatever reason, is as I see it never a legitimate self-expression. It is always a result of sheep mentality; a wish to belong somewhere.

PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason and ask questions.

Woe to him inside a non-conformist clique who does not conform to non-conformity.

A lady wants to be dressed exactly like everybody else but she gets pretty up- set if she sees anybody else dressed exactly like her.

Well, I try my best to be just like I am, But everybody wants you to be just like them, They sing while you slave and I just get bored

The reason they want you to fit in... is that once you do, then they can ignore you.

The younger generation is supposed to rage against the machine, not for it. They're supposed to question authority, not question those who question authority.

Young people want to look like peas in a pod, and there is no use trying to make them different.

What does it mean that social structures among young people are so often predicated upon trying really, really hard to appear to not-be-trying?

It seems as if the more youthful and impressible streams can hardly resist the numerous invitations and temptations to leave theirnative beds and run down their neighbors' channels.

Or about how when you're a child, to stop you from following the crowd you're assaulted with the line "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" but when you're an adult and to be different is suddenly a crime, people seem to be saying, "Hey. Everyone else is jumping off a bridge. Why aren't you?

To me, the punk rock kids I grew up with were really, really smart, and to me, respecting those kids was a really big deal.