Anne Waldman Quotes

If I have smashed the traditions, it was because I knew no traditions.

America was not built by conformists, but by mutineers.

Entrepreneurship is the last refuge of the trouble making individual.

From an early age I didn't buy into the value systems of working hard in a nine-to-five job. I thought creativity, friendship and loyalty and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable was much more interesting.

Being vital means knowing the rules and being brave enough to break them.

Entrepreneurs are misfits to the core. They forge ahead, making their own path and always, always, question the status quo.

The American people ... have a stake in con-conformity, for they know that the American genius is non-conformist.

We have no precedents to guide us, and that is a glorious thing, for precedents, like other guides are disposed to grow tyrannical and refuse to let us do anything on our own initiative. Life grows wearisome in the countries where precedents and conventionality is rule and nothing can happen unless it has happen before.

Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.

I am very into making up my own rules.

Everyone talks about, 'Get your foot in the door,' but I never understood that mentality. Why would I want to go in that house? Why not build my own house? Why not take a chair and smash a window?

I think I always had, like, a rebellious spirit. But it wasn't a rebellious spirit to do wrong. It was a rebellious spirit to do something different.

I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward.Instead of the gong for dinner, let us hear a whistle from the Spartan fife.

Don't keep forever on the public road, going only where others have gone and following one after the other like a flock of sheep. Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods.

What counts alone is the innovator, the dissenter, the harbinger of things unheard of, the man who rejects the traditional standards and aims at substituting new values and ideas for old ones.

Follow the masters! But why should one follow them? The only reason they are masters is that they didn't follow anybody!

Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.

By all means break the rules.

All The Rules In This World Were Made By Someone No Smarter Than You. So Make Your Own.

I get a kick out of being an outsider constantly. It allows me to be creative.

Whenever possible, I operate outside the system.

People relate to the spirit of the band, which is to live your way and succeed on your own terms. There's no hypocrisy in being successful and still railing against conformity.

I was the only guy with any bit of anarchy left.

Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from.

No, because I don't want to hear what's hot and feel I have to copy it. I'll just make up my own thing.