Tom Perrotta Quotes

I'm just part of a tradition of people who aren't pleased. I would never think anyone else who has the same attitude was getting it from me. I'd just think they're... sensible.

What is a rebel? A man who says no: but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation.

Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

May we not look for Discontent, Mistrust, Disaffection to Government and frequent Insurrections?

What is a rebel? A man who says no.

A minority of malcontents, some justly, some unjustly, angry with the present state of things, will always exist in this world.

I have always believed in discontent – not grumbling, which is usually selfish and individual – but a disinclination to sit down idly, knowing things are wrong.

Deliver me from Swedish furniture. Deliver me from clever art. And the phone rang and Tyler answered. "If you don't know what you want," the doorman said, "you end up with a lot you don't." May I never be complete. May I never be content. May I never be perfect. Deliver me, Tyler, from being perfect and complete.

To have a grievance is to have a purpose in life. It not infrequently happens that those who hunger for hope give their allegiance to him who offers them a grievance.

I couldn't stand it. I still can't stand it. I can't stand the way things are. I cannot tolerate this age.

Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too.

We're not completely happy here because we're not supposed to be!

People said I should accept the world. Bullshit! I don't accept the world.

Keep your coins, I want change.

I ain't crazy, I'm just not satisfied.

I suppose I'm saying that defiance is actually part of the lyric job

Men and people will fight you down when you see the light. Let me tell you if you are not wrong than everything is all right.

The human being is constantly torn from calm and peace of simple existence by two things; wanting what you don't have, or disliking what you have.

Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have be the same person. (p. 35)

I get slightly irritated by people who say they're natural rebels because it just means that they're going to be against whatever anybody does, which is almost like saying you might as well leave it as it is.

Things like rebellion and resistance to authority are absolutely as much a part of the human experience as love and cars are, and it's a part that doesn't get covered very much in pop music.

The most depressing thing is the political slogan: there is no alternative. But there is.

Defiance, not obedience, is the American's answer to overbearing authority.