Alice Englert Quotes

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.

Young children seem to be learning who to share this toy with and figure out how it works, while adolescents seem to be exploring some very deep and profound questions: 'How should this society work? How should relationships among people work?' The exploration is: 'Who am I, what am I doing?'

I didn't have my parents to rebel against, but I had society, and that definitely is what they taught me. Just: Trust nothing.

During and shortly after puberty human beings have an indubitable tendency to loosen their allegiance to all traditional rites and social norms of their culture

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.

What did you learn in school that you still use today? Go ahead teachers, tell me. What? Fear, conformity, don't question authority.

I think that like most girls in high school, I just mirrored what was around me.

It's very difficult in our society. You cannot impose certain behavioral changes. Education can do it at the right time, probably by high school. After that it is too late.

I do not want to be a robot, a cog in society who answers 'yes' because 'yes' is considered the appropriate answer. Neither do I want to be a protestor. I just want to seek out what lies underneath the veils of politeness and programming that I've been given as a person in this society.

A flapper is just a little girl trying to grow up - in the process of growing up.

I went to a Catholic school, so of course we had to wear uniforms. My only form of expression was in shoes and the style of my hair.

The thing about adolescence is that you are emerging from a state of obscurity. You are coming out into the world from your family. Your family can seem normal because it is your family and all you know, but in fact it is a mess.

Society is one vast conspiracy for carving one into the kind of statue likes, and then placing it in the most convenient niche it has.

One isn't born one's self. One is born with a mass of expectations, a mass of other people's ideas - and you have to work through it all.

The most formative time of our lives are the years between birth and age 21, when we explore who we are and learn from those who surround us.

As soon as a norm is established, people start questioning it, which is probably a good thing in the end.

Being a teenager is chaotic because you're kind of coming into your own, but you're not an adult; you're fighting with your parents over responsibilities and freedom.

The public school system doesn't get everybody. Every generation has its rebels.

I really wanted to go to high school and be normal.

Personally, I think the best motto for an educational establishment is: 'Or Would You Rather Be a Mule?'

I've never tried to find my real parents. I'm very grateful to my mum and dad for adopting me - they're completely incredible people. It was my dad who encouraged me to question everything, to forge my own path, to think, to read. I always felt it was my right to question everything.

We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness-embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television.

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself

If I had to do a lot of promotion as a kid, it would have been very intense. I'm really glad I got to go through high school, have a college experience, and have the last five years since then, just... being a person.

I did fine in school. School was cool until I started personally rebelling.