Jamie Zawinski Quotes

Ever since I was little, I've always liked to smash things.

Senseless violence is a prerogative of youth, which has much energy but little talent for the constructive.

I was not very well-behaved. I remember I was a discipline problem. I was a typical American male at twenty years old, and I was causing trouble whenever I could.

Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.

I never set fire to a piano. I'd like to have got away with it, though. I pushed a couple of them in the river. They wasn't any good.

Teens are strange and magical.

The teenage years are my least favorite, though my son is phenomenal. He does not get in trouble, and he's not a bad kid. But the fact that they think they know so much.

Young people are thoughtless as a rule.

Oh, we've had our share of hotels bein' smashed and all, but that was a long time ago. You get lousy room service... I mean, there's no use throwin' a TV set out the window for the sake of throwin' a TV set out the window. But if you get a lousy picture then you have an excuse

Human beings invent just as many ways to sabotage their lives as to improve them.

I don't kick a man when he's down, unless I'm the one who put him down in the first place. I don't put him down unless he deserves it. And I don't break my word if I give it. So I'll give you my word.

emotion is first of all and in principle an accident

For only that which we knew and practiced at age 15 will one day constitute our attraction. And one thing, therefore, can never be made good: having neglected to run away from home.

Funny, that no matter where you are in the world, there's always someone eager to help you destroy yourself.

My job is not only to give medals, you know, which certainly is part of my function. First and foremost, though, my job is about ensuring success of the work in various spheres. It is a kind of day-to-day spadework.

Mankind, I hazard, wherever found, Civilized or Savage, cannot keep to any purpose for much length of time, except the purpose of destroying himself.

Children are wickeder than adults, they have no sense of restraint.

Sarah Palin is now the guy who hangs out in the high school parking lot, showing off his car, five years after he graduated.

Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.

If devils exist, their first aim is to give you an anesthetic -- to put you off your guard. Only if that fails, do you become aware of them.

Changes in the structure of society are not brought about solely by massive engines of doctrine. The first flash of insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few phrases.

If you have ever spray-painted your girlfriends name on an overpass, you might be a redneck.

Most humans recognize their ruin, but they carry on regardless.

Your main contribution is spray painting your nickname on other people's things. And my cousin, who's a 'gangster', he's like, 'No, Tash, you don't understand; you throw a fat piece up there, that piece is yours.' I'm like, 'No one thinks you own Costco.'