Matt Groening Quotes

'Rebel' is not a word I would describe for myself, but I feel like I was a total rebel being an actor. It made me feel like there was something in me, a passion, a love - and that I didn't just squelch it.

I refuse to act the way someone expects me to.

Now I'm old... maybe I'm still an eccentric hippie. There's a wonderful freedom in the eccentricity - you can go places, you can be wacky, and you don't have to be constrained. I think that's why people are eccentric - eccentricity is a weapon... and it's great!

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive.

The whole 'bad girl' thing allows me to mess up sometimes. And I have freedom to say more of what I want to.

I'm not interested in meeting people's expectations, and I'm not interested in pleasing people.

How I long to fall just a little bit, to dance out of the lines and stray from the light.

Conforming happens so naturally that we can forget how powerful it is. But the thing that makes us human are those times we listen to the whispers of our soul and allow ourselves to be pulled in another direction.

I have a natural tendency to resist conformity.

I'm not scary. It's scary for people to see someone being nonconformist.

Always be yourself and rebel against what people tell you should be and be whatever you want to.

I don't care what's legal and what's not. I'm going to play the way I play.

I like more the fact that I like to think out of the box. Thinking out of the box goes along with dressing out of the box and living out of the box.

Father, I am from a different egg than your other children. Think of me as a duckling raised by hens. I am not a domestic bird destined to spend his life in a chicken coop. the water that scares you rejuvenates me. For unlike you I can swim, and swim I shall. The ocean is my homeland. If you are with me, come to the ocean. If not, stop interfering with me and go back to the chicken coop.

I for one like chaos. Chaos looks good on me.

Be crazy! But learn how to be crazy without being the center of attention. Be brave enough to live different.

Punk rock should mean freedom, liking and excepting anything that you like. Playing whatever you want. As sloppy as you want. As long as it's good and it has passion.

I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be.

I remember when I was in art classes, I hated following the assignments. And I would get in trouble for doing something totally different or taking it in a weird direction.

I must be allowed to be as I am.

It's like, you can't have any fun, and if you do have fun, if you do your own thing, you're considered crazy and should be in a mental institution. Now, that's what I find creepy. I'm eccentric. I am not messed up.

I grew up with my cousins, who were as close as brothers, and frankly, I didn't like what girls were expected to do. I liked horseback riding, playing football, going to rodeos. I wanted to be in jeans all the time, and I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to conform to a certain standard, so I didn't.

I just like being a social experiment sometimes. I really should not be allowed in public. But I just go out into the public just to see people's reaction.

To me, punk is about being an individual and going against the grain and standing up and saying 'This is who I am'.

You were once wild here. Don't let them tame you.