Michael Chabon Quotes

I was a born troublemaker and might as well earn a living at it.

The idea is not to please the most amount of people. Growing up in Versailles, the idea was to please the least amount of people.

I like stirring things up. I'm on the side of the kids more than I am on the adults. And occasionally I find some adults that have that same mischievous streak, so I don't get in too much trouble.

I spent the majority of time at school trying to break the rules. I would climb to the top of buildings; I even burned a building down once - not intentionally, just because I was interested in fire. I remember going through the rule book, ticking off the ones I had broken and looking for the ones I hadn't.

I'm just a troublemaker.

There is something about you that makes me feel terribly wicked. You make me want to do shocking things. Maybe it's because you're so proper. Your necktie is never crooked, and your shoes are always shiny. And your shirts are so starchy. Sometimes when I look at you, I want to tear off all your buttons. Or set your trousers on fire. I've so often wondered-are you ticklish, my lord?

Break windows, smoke cigars, and stay up late. Tell 'em to do that, they'll find a little pot of gold.

You have to be a little bad to make history.

It was as if he grew his hair long and smoked cigarettes because he liked to, not because he liked being seen to. This was dangerously subversive.

Rebels learn the rules better than the rule-makers do. Rebels learn where the holes are, where the rules can best be breached. Become an expert at the rules. Then break them with creativity and style.

I hate ordinary people!

Taking risks, breaking the rules, and being a maverick have always been important but today they are more crucial than ever.

Outlaws are can openers in the supermarket of life.

I've always been driven to buck the system.

If you can't be good, be loud.

Cause see they call me a menace; and if the shoe fits I'll wear it.

Don't be outraged, be outrageous.

I never learned the rules in the first place. To change the game is at the heart of what Virgin stands for, so the company culture has always been: "Don't sweat it: rules were meant to be broken."

Subversion is what I do.

I'd like to incite people to break the framework, to be disobedient in school, to stick their tongues out, to keep insulting authority.

What you have to do is break all the rules.

I believe rules are meant to be broken.

Successful people are the ones who are breaking the rules.

A pair of Blue Noses on the next bench glared their disapproval at Evie’s knee-length dress. Evie decided to give them a real show. She hiked her skirt and, humming jauntily, rolled down her stockings, exposing her legs. It had the desired effect on the Blue Noses, who moved down the platform, clucking about the “disgrace of the young.” She would not miss this place.

My favorite quote about entrepreneurship is that to understand an entrepreneur, you should study a juvenile delinquent. They're both saying: "This sucks and I'm going to do it another way." You have to want to break the rules and prove that your way works.