Dave McCary Quotes

In a consumer society, people wallow in things, fascinating, enjoyable things. If you define your value by the things you acquire and surround yourself with, being excluded is humiliating.

If a player has jewelry or a cool car, people in Germany are instantly jealous.

Our knowledge of what the richer than ourselves possess, and the poor do not, has never been more widespread. Therefore, envy, which is wanting what others have, and jealousy, which is not wanting others to have what one has, have never been more widespread.

Footage of people camped out at Best Buy or elsewhere is not remotely a celebration. Rather, it's a reminder of just how economically distressed a large percentage of our populace is.

Insecurity is a natural part of human nature, and there are times we feel our stories are not worth telling, so we turn to the people we admire for strength. If we dress like someone everyone thinks is cool, perhaps we'll be seen as cool.

I think true economic class unhappiness comes from when across the street someone has a new Cadillac and you can't get that.

I was always in the popular crowd, but I really had atrocious teeth. I was encouraged to 'do well in school, 'cause no one's going to marry you!'

I always wonder if what I'm wearing will be something that people would compliment, or want to wear. I don't ever get ready just for myself, ever.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you. I don't ever feel like the cool kid at the party, ever. It's like, 'Smile and be nice to everybody, because you were not invited to be here.'

The surprising thing is that I was not funny in high school. I was always jealous of the funny kids because they always got the girls. I couldn't tell a joke to save my life.

I think a lot of self-identity and inner-personal development is hampered by consumerism and capitalism because we see ourselves as a reflection of the TV, rather than as a reflection of the people who are around us, truly.

I'm basically a professional nerd, and I'm still not cool. I'm around people who are cool sometimes, and I know I'm not them. But that's OK; I don't care.

I could see jealousy coming up, I could see anger, I could see frustration. I could see people's agendas. I could see my kids going wild - because we never had any money, and suddenly, we had money.

There is always going to be someone more successful, richer, better looking, or with a nicer car.

School is not a great place to have feminine features or a big nose, or to wear glasses or the wrong shoes.

When I'm not feeling good about how I look, I figure if I just buy the right piece of clothing, I'll feel all right.

I wouldn't get asked to dances because I wasn't as petite and cute as the other girls.

In private school, I definitely judged myself against the lighter-skinned girls. I wanted to have different hair. I wanted to fit in. I thought that was more beautiful.

At school, when everyone would sell sweets and chocolate, I'd always take it that step further. I'd hustle as hard as I could to get the new Air Forces, to go and chill with the posh kids and the white girls who were around my area.

I am not bound to spend my precious days on Earth trying to keep up with the Joneses - because the Joneses are really just a bunch of folks in conference rooms changing 'trends' rapidly to create fake monthly emergencies for us.

We had a severely autistic kid in my class, and I was always picked last in gym class, even after him. Naturally, that made me feel pretty bad as an eight-year-old.

There's peer pressure of not being respected of having a certain amount of money, but if you know who you are, then you see that and look past it.

It's one of the central problems of American culture: telling you if you're younger, more beautiful, more famous, whatever, that then you'll be happy.

I have a Mercedes. I wear a Rolex watch. I have no problem with the selling of things.

I think people are more alike than they are different, especially in high school. No matter what clique you belong to, everybody's trying to get approval and trying to fit in.