Amy Heckerling Quotes

When I entered high school I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went from being an A-student to a B-student to a C-student, but I didn't care. I was getting the high fives and the low fives and the pats on the back. I was cool.

In junior high, I really wanted to be popular. Suddenly there were parties with boys, and I wanted to be part of that. There was a group of girls, and I wanted to be friends with them.

When I was young, running with a gang was a cool thing to do; that's how you get popular; that's how you get the girls.

The only behaviour that is truly common is to avoid doing something because you think others might consider it common.

People just don't realize how much peer pressure, the desire for peer acclamation, influences them.

See, at a certain point it becomes cool to be boy crazy. That happens in sixth grade, and it gives you so much social status, particularly in an all-girls school, if you can go up and talk to boys.

It’s not hard to be popular if you take a poll to find out what it means to be popular.

In high school, everyone told me I had a great personality and sense of humor, but I wanted to be the girl who boys liked because she was pretty on top of being funny. I was boy crazy.

Like any other kid, I was trying so hard to fit in that school made no sense to me. I wasn't attending class; I was trying to hang out in the caf with the cool kids. I was always trying to be cool.

Don't give in to all the cliques and popularity. It means nothing. I know super popular guys, and guess what? They're just normal people, too.

Fame or perceived success - it all comes from groupthink.

I think a lot of young kids at school are very conscious of trying to keep credibility in case they kind of stand out in a crowd and get bullied by trying to stay cool and stuff. And my whole thing, all the way through school, was I was just a goof... I didn't care.

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!'

Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved.

What teenagers want most of all are social rewards, especially the respect of their peers.

In high school, I threw a party to get a guy's attention. I wanted him to think I was cool, so I let him and his friends DJ and basically take over the house.

You can meet a young person who goes to school and is really enthusiastic, but if a sufficiently strong personality convinces them that this is a waste of time, that person might flunk out.

When I was a little girl at school, I really wanted to be Katie or Sarah or Sophie. When you're a little girl at school, you want to be like the other little girls.

My first year of college was tough. I thought that just being an athlete I could get by. I thought I was okay until I got kicked out, which happened twice.

Peer pressure is just that: pressure.

I think trying to be cool is the worst possible ambition - and I have never suffered from it.

Avoid popularity; it has many snares, and no real benefit.

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

I think people love it when anybody acts bad; it's not particular to me.

I know how easy it is for some minds to glide along with the current of popular opinion, where influence, respectability, and all those motives which tend to seduce the human heart are brought to bear.