Tom Petty Quotes

We need punk now; we need it more than ever. We need rebellion by youth.

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.

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out.

I was very head-strong, and this was the Vietnam War era - You did not listen to your parents or other authority figures. You didn't share their values. No one did in my circle. It was OK to rebel.

Part of the heart of anarchy is, dare to go against the grain of the conventional ways of thinking about our realities. Anarchists have always gone against the grain, and that's been a place of hope.

I think [rock'n'roll] essence is what made it good and has a lot in common with what originally made monotheism good - it's against everything that is fixed, all the social structures that you can't go past.

Rap is rock 'n' roll. Rock is when you push the buttons in the system; when you say, I'm not going along with what you're saying. That's rock, whether it's done with guitars, or it's done with just beats.

It takes more than going down to the video store and renting "Easy Rider" to be a rebel.

There is still such a thing as subversive. Subversive makes hip people nervous. It's something new that scares you in a good way. I mean, subversive to me is a compliment. Subversive is something that influences people to do something against society that they haven't thought of before.

Punk rock isn't something you grow out of Punk rock is an attitude, and the essence of that attitude is 'give us some truth'

When punk really started to happen, it was a reaction against the disco craze of the time.

In my parents' generation, rebellion was pop culture. It's not anymore.

I think my father had a lot of anti-establishment in him. He came through the '60s.

All punk is is attitude. That's what makes it. The attitude.

Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.

When I was a child, I was one of the kids who wore black all the time, and when the kids asked me why I wore black, I said things like, 'I'm mourning the death of modern society.' I mean, I was a riot.

Not long ago, a hat was a conformist accessory. Then the 1960s came along, and young people didn't want to wear hats.

Music was a way of rebelling against the whole rah-rah high school thing.

By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.

All hippies around now just represent complete apathy.

Baseball was socially relevant, and so was my rebellion against it.

Everything the Beats stood for was the opposite of the dominant culture today.

When people talk about the '60s I never think that was me there. It was me and I was in it, but I was never enamoured with all that. It's supposed to be sex and drugs and rock and roll and I'm not really like that. I've never really seen the Rolling Stones as anything.

On one level the sixties revolt was an impressive illustration of Lenin's remark that the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with.

You can rebel against everything adults say. When I want to find out what the new music is, I find out what parents hate.