Henry Rollins Quotes

I was regarded as the school freak which further reinforced a lot of inhibitions and doubts I had about myself. I was a shy, frightened teenager for a long time.

The first thing that happens to someone with a mental illness, in the throes of it, is that they lose all their self-esteem. They don't think they fit in.

I don't feel very good about myself. People always leave me. Nobody can stand me for very long. I wish I could cut my tongue out, or take out the part of my brain that has opinions. Or cares. I wish I could be simple. Be quiet, introverted, or shy. I'm half way in between a wallflower at a party and Elvis Presley. People love one or the other. In between is no place to be.

The biggest disease this day and age is that of people feeling unloved.

A teenager usually wants to try to get people to notice him in some way, to feel like someone gives a damn. Me, all that attention, I just wanted to fade into the background. Be invisible. Disappear.

I just wanted to fit in as a teenager, but it was hopeless.

As a teenager at high school, I felt like an outsider.

As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too.

I tried to be really tough when I was younger. I felt I had to stand up for myself. I never felt like I fit in.

Everyone has strange teenage years. It's not like I can claim some particularly unique set of high school horrors. I think I was just an awkward kid who never felt comfortable in his own skin. I think I was alone a lot by circumstance and then by choice.

I think all teenagers feel alone, and that nobody else knows what they are going through and all that sort of stuff.

High school was hard for me. I tried really hard to fit in and said the things I thought people wanted to hear. But I was unsure of myself. I was self-conscious, and I didn't really know my place or where I fit in.

I never got picked on, but I never had a lot of friends. When I talked to my parents about it, they said, 'They're just jealous because you're beautiful and talented.' It was probably one of the worst things they could have told me, because I became self-conscious.

Growing up, I didn't feel cool; I didn't fit into any crowd.

I was very awkward as a kid. I was a square trying to fit into a circle and it never worked for me. The harder I tried, the harder I fell. For some reason I was a real target and I got beat up and called names.

Being young is so hard. You're surrounded by judgment and fear.

I know what it's like to be young and to feel like you don't belong.

I was a very shy kid and both my best friend and my sister went to Waterloo, and I just thought no I can't, I can't go there because I'll just hang on to them and no one will even know who the heck I am and that's no way to go through life.

I think a lot of my angst comes from feeling unaccepted.

I had a hard time going to school. I probably wasn't the most pleasant young person to be around. I kept a very tight circle of trusted people.

When you're growing up, it's very easy to feel lonely and insecure.

We can experience an erosion of self-esteem when we're lonely, as we come to believe that it's because we're not likable or because something is broken inside of us. And that can just compound that loneliness further and further.

I felt very awkward and out of place in school. Not popular, not attractive, not special in any way and I was longing for love and approval from someone.

I felt alienated at school, and I never did well with girls.

Let's face it. No kid in high school feels as though they fit in.