Laura Jane Grace > Quotes

“Where are you supposed to go when you no longer feel welcome in the places you turned to because you didn't feel welcome anywhere else?”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“We wanted to be huge, but knew deep down we never would be. That's the punk mentality, always shooting yourself in the foot before even taking the first step.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“I watched Joan tuck my daughter back into bed and hoped that one day Evelyn would remember this moment of a stoned Joan Jett putting her to sleep and asking, “Are you going to dream of doggies and kitties?”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“You guys want to get a brostitute?"
"Prostidudes!"
I laughed at them along with everyone else, the whole time knowing the truth about myself, that I wished I were so brave.
Not knowing who you are is a terrible feeling.
I've been called a "sellout" many times in life for the choices I've made in my musical career. But this experience, that moment--that's what it feels like to truly sell out.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Don't let them break you... don't let them tell you who you are”
― Laura Jane Grace

“Initially I had been attracted to punk and anarchism because I saw them as a means to make a positive change, where everyone was equal. While there were some people in the scene who upheld those values, the more punks I dealt with, the more I realized that most of them were privileged white kids taking advantage of this idealism.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Deep deep down inside of me I know I am not a mistake. I do not feel sick. I do not feel like a pervert. I am not gay. I am not a fag. I am not a drag queen. I am not a transexual. I am not transgender. I am just her, a daughter, a sister, someone's girlfriend, just like all the other pretty girls on campus.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Pope’s family had arranged for a preacher to give a graveside sermon. Pope would have hated it. The preacher didn’t know Pope and his speculation about the type of person Pope was came off as insulting. We all watched Pope’s coffin as it was lowered into the ground. Flowers, cigarettes, and joints were all thrown on top of it before a backhoe and four gravediggers covered him up forever. It was then that I understood the finality of death, as all of Pope’s friends walked their separate directions away from the freshly buried grave. I wondered if Pope was crying out for everyone not to leave, please stay, please stay. Please, stay.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Of course, what no one tells you when you’re young and arrogant is that you eventually grow up to become the thing you hate.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Where are you supposed to go when you no longer feel welcome in the places you turned to because you didn’t feel welcome anywhere else?”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“They thought I was troubled after noticing the cut marks I'd made on my arms and legs, a habit I'd picked up to impress cute girls in school. I'd carve a crush's name into my shoulder, or make slashes on my forearm to win their attention. The pain was intense, but it paid off.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“For more than half my life, Against Me! had been the thing that pushed me forward, the thing that held me back, and the thing that almost killed me. But this time, it was the thing that saved me.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“It was the nihilism and self-destructive nature of punk rock that I first latched on to. Live fast, die young.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“For all I know, we died in that accident and everything since has been just a dream.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Girl, I’m sorry, but I’m leaving, we’re both at fault, we’re both to blame. And it wasn’t the other men ’cause there were other women. This just isn’t love, it’s just the remorse of a loss of a feeling. Even if I stayed it just wouldn’t be the same.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Show spaces were supposed to be open to everyone regardless of age, race, class, sex, or sexual preference, but for the most part it was just white kids oblivious to the privilege they came from. It also became clear to me that while these were the politics heralded by the scene, often they were not actually practiced.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“I don’t care about passing by anyone else’s standards but my own.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“An ardent anarchist, I believed everyone’s efforts to be considered equally.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“It was a human skull I’d bought from an antique dealer. I could think of no gift with more finality. I hoped whenever she saw it, it would remind her of the eternal love I felt for her, that underneath gender constructs—the skin and thread, stitches and ligaments—we are all just bones in a box.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“I don’t want to see the world that way anymore, I don’t want to feel that weak and insecure. As if you were my fucking pimp, as if I was your fucking whore. Black me out.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“I stand up and look down at my body. Beautiful under the kindest of light.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Pope was only 26 years years old and now he’s dead and there’s nothing any of us can do about it. All he did was break his fucking foot, he wasn’t supposed to die when we left him in Dallas. He was supposed to have surgery, get his cast, and be back out on the road with us by summer. It was the insurance-provided assisted living doctors that killed him. They told him he was schizophrenic. Started feeding him psychiatric drugs. They over-medicated him. Too many pills. His bbody couldn’t take it. He wasn’t crazy. He just wasn’t meant for Texas. They won’t release any of his records to us, only to family. Pope didn’t have much family left, just his older brother and grandmother. He told us all his parents were dead. It wasn’t until after Pope died we found out his father was still alive. None of them are going to chase this. I feel responsible. We left him. It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. It was just a broken foot, a busted ankle. Heather had been talking to him while he was in the hospital. He told him to come stay with us. He was incoherent whenever I’d hear from him. It was like you could tell the drugs were kicking in. I was too self-obsessed to care, too focused on my failing career. Too busy being full of shit and uninspired. To fucking original. So fucking wasted. It’s a rare thing to meet someone out on the road that you connect with. It’s such a rare and beautiful thing to find a true friend out there on the road. I failed him. Pope, I’m sorry, so very sorry.”
― Laura Jane Grace

“There was a little sexual tension between us too... I thought he might have a crush on me... I thought Kevin maybe wanted to fuck me. I maybe wanted to fuck Kevin too. This was confusing because we both liked girls, it made me wonder if I was gay.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“You believe in authority, I believe in Myself
I'm a Molotov cocktail, you're Dom Perignon”
― Laura Jane Grace

“Some songs take time, some songs dissolve into nothing, and very rarely, a song will simply find you in the night.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“My gender was constantly on trial. I was being treated like a child, back to being a teenager again, trying to justify myself to an authority figure. He wanted to see 'proof.' I'd show up for the session and he would ask, 'So when are you going to start dressing like a woman?' My heart would sink... It was absurd that he thought just because I wanted to be a woman, that I no longer wanted to wear black clothing and would adopt perfume and frilly dresses. Then it finally clicked for me. The therapist just wanted to see me in a wig, mascara, and high heels. He needed to see what he thought a woman should look like, and his idea of femininity.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“Music helped me cope with these feelings. I discovered 80s hair metal—bands like Poison, Warrant, and Bon Jovi. The first cassette I owned was Def Leppard’s Hysteria album, purchased in a military PX because I liked the cover art of two faces screaming through a psychedelic triangle. But the band I became obsessed with was Guns N’ Roses. Their music appealed to me because it felt dangerous. I was afraid of my parents seeing the liner note artwork. The look of the band, particularly that of wiry lead singer Axl Rose, excited me most because it was androgynous. Hair was big, clothes were tight, lines were blurred. I often couldn’t tell if band members were boys or girls, and I liked that.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“With money I’d saved mowing lawns, I ordered a $100 Harmony acoustic guitar from a Sears catalog. Waiting for it to arrive in the mail was excruciating. I already knew who I wanted to be, and I was eager to get started. My parents paid for lessons from an Army wife, but I got nothing out of them. Instead, I learned to play by ear, listening to my favorite albums and playing along to them.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“I laughed at them with everyone else, the whole time knowing the truth about myself, that I wish I were that brave. Not knowing who you are is a terrible feeling. I've been called a "sell-out" many times in life.... But this experience, that moment - that's what it feels like to truly sell out.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout

“I was offered this advice recently: “Major labels don’t know how to sell 100k records. They can sell 500k, they can sell a million, if you’re Green Day, they can even sell four million. But that first 100k, that’s why they need you, that’s why they’re interested in your band, because you’ve demonstrated that you can sell that first 100k.”
― Laura Jane Grace, Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout