David James Duncan Quotes

Rules equal boredom, and I don't like that.

You know, how much order is good? And when does order become too restrictive? Is a little bit of chaos okay, or is chaos always an evil force? I mean, these are questions that any kid who's ever been in a school cafeteria can relate to.

Method involves a slavish addiction to laws, and we can only aspire to anarchy.

There's no rules. Show me the rule book.

The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound lungs, cannot draw a long breath without causing your rotten institutions to come toppling down by the vacuum he makes. Your church is a baby-house made of blocks, and so of the state....The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard.

One wonders what would happen in a society in which there were no rules to break. Doubtless everyone would quickly die of boredom.

I'm done with rules that are there just to be rules.

School is not for me. I'm volatile and hate being told what to do.

I never know what time it is, If you don't know what time it is, you can just move. Time is a restraint.

I don't take well to rules.

One of the nice things about not working on a TV show anymore is that I'm not on any particular kind of clock.

I don't like rules, because rules, you have to follow.

I couldn't follow nobody's rules.

I can't stay within the constructs of societal expectations.

We never want to toe the line.

It is the leisured, I have noticed, who rebel the most at an interruption of routine.

What do we want to be prefects for?” said George, looking revolted at the very idea. “It’d take all the fun out of life.

When I dropped out [from a law school], everybody was disappointed... But I found that disappointing people is a good thing, because disapproval is freedom. Before that, I never realized how much I sought other people's approval. Once I figured that out, I was free to move on and seek the approval of other people, in comedy clubs and showbiz meetings.

As one might expect, authoritarianism will at times cause children and students to adopt rebellious positions, defiant of any limit, discipline, or authority. But it will also lead to apathy, excessive obedience, uncritical conformity, lack of resistance against authoritarian discourse, self-abnegation, and fear of freedom.

And I couldn't make fun of her for that dream. It was my dream, too. And Indian boys weren't supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren't supposed to dream big, either. We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly.

If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered.

In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.

If you're still doing what mommy and daddy said for you to do (go to school, get a job, and save money), you're losing.

What did you learn in school that you still use today? Go ahead teachers, tell me. What? Fear, conformity, don't question authority.

Sometimes the rules don't work. Sometimes the rules cause the anarchy.