Youthful Identity Quotes

Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and The Sex Pistols may come and go, but rebellion remains a key part of the rock n' roll experience. However, that rebellion - the outgrowth of a youthful search for independence and identity - doesn't always take the same form.

Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.

It was not designed for me to be 35 and still doing the same thing. But in another sense, it's like I've had an extended adolescence. It helps that I look young, too.

My mom used to say that if someone woke her up in the middle of the night and asked how old she was, she'd answer 27. Hearing her, I'd think, 'That's ridiculous; your job as my mom is to be old.'

As kids, we say stupid things, and because there's not a record of it, nobody is going to give you a hard time at 30 years old about something you said or did when you were 8 years old. Online, you have all these social networks that are moving to a state of persistent identity, and in turn, we're sacrificing the ability to be youthful.

I was a good college kid, all-American and baseball-playing, living in the dorms with a million barbarians. I did not expect to be claimed by Fitzgerald hook, line, and sinker. 'This Side of Paradise' - that sweet, sophomoric pastiche of notes, scenes, poetry, and plays - I felt like he'd written the book just for me.

I'm so stupid because I refuse to think that I'm getting older. I get up in the morning, and it's like, 'La, la, la, I'm so pretty.' I still mingle with a lot with young people. I even go to college campuses to talk to them because I know how they think. They don't think I'm boring, either. They think I'm cool, but I want them to think I'm hot!

You picture yourself as being 22 always, and so it's very bizarre when you're not.

I used to read Gore Vidal books and think I was cool.

The early pictures of me you see online, in just T-shirts and hoodies - I'm still that guy with the hoodie. But what you don't get to see in most of those pics is that I had these red clogs on that had, like, eyeballs on the ends of them that I drew on. That speaks a little bit more to what I was going after, stylistically.

I dyed my hair blonde when I was 13 because I wanted to be like my mum and my gran, who both have blonde hair.

And David saw himself reflected in the Woodsman's eyes, and there he was no longer old but a young man, for a man is always his father's child no matter how old he is or how long they have been apart.

I used to be a cool chick but I'm not anymore.

I couldn't live without Radio 1. They condemned me to oblivion, but they're what I grew up with.

I just feel like I haven't grown up yet. I live on my own and I do grown-up things, but there is something about me that is very youthful.

My whole thing is that often times when teenagers are about 18, 19, 20, 21, they get this mentality that they have to be old, they have to appear older, they can no longer be seen as a high schooler, they need to be seen as mid-20s all of a sudden, even though they're only, like, 20.

A youthful American voice isn't particularly challenging - I've been a young American, and they're all around me. I can walk from my house to Barrington High School.