Kenneth Lonergan Quotes

You lie when you're a teenager, I think, because your parents are treating you like you're younger and you - in your mind - think that you're so much older. You make up all of these lies because you think it's what you should do.

Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.

I don't think I gave my mom too much trouble as a teenager.

I'm interested in youth culture - when your parents are running your life, but you think you're the big man - but I'm not trying to make a statement.

To all those mothers and fathers who are struggling with teen-agers, I say, just be patient: even though it looks like you can't do anything right for a number of years, parents become popular again when kids reach 20.

Kids should be naughty and go through that rebellious phase I didn't have.

I like writing about teenagers because it's a time of great change and conflict. Up to then, you accept what your parents tell you.

As a teenager, I was perpetually grounded. I was stubborn rather than rebellious.

I think anyone who's ever gone through adolescence and wanted something from their parents knows the basic tenets of a con.

My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion.

No matter how good you are, at some point your kids are gonna have to create their own independence and think that Mom and Dad aren't cool, just to establish themselves. That's what adolescence is about. They're gonna go through that no matter what.

As a teenager, I ached to grow up even more than I dreaded to. I craved escape from my parents' impositions on what I believed.

We had an argument, and he told me to be home at midnight, and I said no. And so when I did come home, the door was locked. And I had gotten a set of luggage for graduation that day, and it was on the front porch, packed. He thought that he was going to prove a point and I was going to say, 'Oh, I'm sorry, Daddy, I'm sorry'.

It's refreshing and weird when your kids get older and they're able to tell you how they feel and what they want.

Your being born makes your parents God. You owe them your life, and they can control you. Then puberty makes you Satan, just because you want something better.

It's very important that we instill some respect for the parents. In America especially, the kids are unruly, screaming at Mommy and Daddy, running the show.

Right now, my daughter's just rolling her eyes at everything I do; I'm just an embarrassment.

Adolescents are not monsters. They are just people trying to learn how to make it among the adults in the world, who are probably not so sure themselves.

It's true that I've never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

The donning of the ear buds marks the beginning of teen life, when children set off on their own for the passage through adolescence.

A dramatic thing, the first time you stand up to your dad.

I wanted to be on my own and get out of the house. We were the kind of kids that - we - obeyed our parents. If they said no, you don't ask why.

As a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you.

In terms of the frustration of my character, I suppose any teenager has probably gone through that, in terms of telling their parents, I want to do one thing, and their parent says no. I think parents sometimes forget that they were children.

My poor mum had a lot of problems with me around that time. I was young but I'd been working for years, so if she asked me to clean my room I'd say, 'You can't tell me what to do after I've worked a 12-hour day.' It gave me a power that no one that age should have.