Quotessence
Home / Topics / Suburbia Quotes

Suburbia Quotes

Browse 49 quotes about Suburbia.

Suburbia Quotes

“The trick is to learn to believe that it's a disconnected world, a lunatic world, where what is true now was not true then; where Thou Shalt Not Kill and the fact that one has killed a great many men mean nothing, and absolutely nothing, for now is the time to raise legitimate children, and make money, and dress properly, and be kind to one's wife, and admire one's boss, and learn not to worry, and think of oneself as what? That makes no difference, he thought—I'm just a man in a gray flannel suit. I must keep my suit neatly pressed like anyone else, for I am a very respectable young man.”

WarConformitySuburbia
Book:The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Create image

“After all, we were young. We were fourteen and fifteen, scornful of childhood, remote from the world of stern and ludicrous adults. We were bored, we were restless, we longed to be seized by any whim or passion and follow it to the farthest reaches of our natures. We wanted to live – to die – to burst into flame – to be transformed into angels or explosions. Only the mundane offended us, as if we secretly feared it was our destiny . By late afternoon our muscles ached, our eyelids grew heavy with obscure desires. And so we dreamed and did nothing, for what was there to do, played ping-pong and went to the beach, loafed in backyards, slept late into the morning – and always we craved adventures so extreme we could never imagine them. In the long dusks of summer we walked the suburban streets through scents of maple and cut grass, waiting for something to happen.”

SummerAdolescenceSuburbia
Book:Dangerous Laughter
Create image

“pissing on photos, we wake parched in parallel realities i still end up drowning in visions he settles for the horror; hostage to the oddity of normal- comfy spot mirage, as he makes the bed daily so he can lie in it and be secret sad boy; he settles to sleepwalk with fantasy, slitting the throat of actual possibility, begging for a hand job to get through the day, making friends with locked doors and collectors of cookie cutters”

PoetryRelationshipsDark HumorSuburbiaPunk PoetryIndie PoetrySmall Press
Book:Altered States of the Unflinching Souls
Create image

“Submerged Suburbia by Stewart Stafford Fell out of bed, dragging my soul, Looked out the old goldfish bowl, To see suburbia was underwater, And I was engaged to Neptune’s daughter. There were buses like whales, Driven by aquatic snails, And jellyfish squatters, Chased by octopus coppers. Crab and lobster schoolkids, Scurried by making online bids, As a serial killer shark, Prowled for surfers before dark. Someone let the water out, And it all went down the spout, Flopping fish still tarried, But I got out of getting married. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”

PoetryFloodSurrealSuburbsUnderwaterSuburbiaSurreal PoetryFloodsAquatic LifeUnder The Sea
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“You were thinking about how suburbs are perfect cradles for dreaming: they practically beg you to imagine another life, one lived at a burning voltage. The dreaming hidden in this place — murmuring beneath the comfort of the uniform gardens in their perfect rows, the mowed lawns, each driveway that bit too small for the two large cars — you couldn't have become what you are if you hadn't always been from this.”

AmbitionDream BigDaydreamingSuburbsEscapingNormalitySuburbiaBecoming BetterSuburban LifeSuburban
Book:Kala
Create image

“Suburbia Knocks by Stewart Stafford Covert dawn's surreptitious light, A magpie sentry's warning song, Swooping, scanning silent streets, Cackling danger all night long. Metallic cross of crucified clothes, A choir of colours in the breeze, Waterboarded by lashing rain, Made them suffer incrementally. One knock for no, two knocks for yes, One and a half for uncertainty, Three knocks for drinks and company, The rite of suburban courtesy. 37 years ago, down at number 37, Came the first and last royal visit, Dizzying anticipation from first light, Fading fairytale in a curtsying gibbet. © Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”

ClothesSuburbsSuburbiaMagpiesSuburban LifeSuburbanMagpieWaterboardingClotheslineWashing Line
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The curious culture of the modern suburb will believe anything it is told in the papers about the wickedness of the Pope, or the martyrdom of the King of the Cannibal Islands, and, in the excitement of these topics, never knows what is happening next door. In this case, however, the two forms of interest actually coincided in a coincidence of thrilling intensity. Their own suburb had actually been mentioned in their favourite newspaper. It seemed to them like a new proof of their own existence when they saw the name in print. It was almost as if they had been unconscious and invisible before; and now they were as real as the King of the Cannibal Islands.”

RealityBeliefMediaNewspapersNeighborsDisconnectionSuburbia
Book:The Secret of Father Brown
Create image

“He hated the blue platter his mother served from, and the salt and pepper shakers, which were glass with red tops, and he hated the silverware designed in flowers, some pieces scratched almost beyond recognition. He even hated the round table and the succession of tablecloths, one pale blue with yellow leaves, one white with red and orange squares. He hated the uncomfortable chairs, particularly his own, where he sat squirming, and he hated his family and the way they talked.”

AmericaHateFamilySuburbia
Book:The Road Through the Wall
Create image

“These pharmaceutical company executives are dope dealers and they should be treated worse, and more roughly than dope dealers. When you're talking about millionaire and billionaire executives at pharmaceutical companies, these are people with something to lose if threatened with jail. Frog-march them out of their door in suburbia, handcuffed and surrounded by DEA officers, with their children and neighbours watching.”

PeopleIfsShouldChildrenLosesCompanyTalkingDoorsTreatedExecutivesMarchJailOfficersThreatenedNeighbourMillionaireFrogsBillionaireDealerDopePharmaceuticalSuburbiaPharmaceutical Companies
Author:Anthony Bourdain
Create image

“We have to make some things for ourselves because the conveyer belt from China is doomed (this process is known as import replacement). We have to do transportation differently, because mass motoring and even commercial aviation will soon be over. We have to inhabit the landscape differently because both suburbia and the metroplex mega-city will be obsolete, so we will have to return to a more traditional disposition of things in smaller urbanisms associated with productive agricultural hinterlands.”

ProcessCitiesKnownReturnMassChinaTraditionalLandscapeProductiveAviationDoomedDispositionBeltsTransportationObsoleteImportsReplacementsMegaSuburbia
Author:James Howard Kunstler
Create image

“Government at all levels in the USA right now is engaged in a quixotic campaign to sustain the unsustainable. We're determined to run WalMart, Disney World, the Interstate Highways, suburbia, and an imperial military by other means than oil. We'll squander a lot of dwindling resources in the process.”

WorldMeanGovernmentRunningProcessLevelsMilitaryRight NowResourcesDeterminedOilCampaignsUsaEngagedHighwaysInterstateWalmartSuburbiaQuixotic
Author:James Howard Kunstler
Create image

“The fortunate and successful New Urbanists will be the ones who can find local infill projects in small towns and small cities associated with farming, water transport, (perhaps rail too) and water power. I do not believe personally that we will retrofit much of suburbia in the way many people wish we might. The capital won't be there, and I'm rather convinced that the population is headed down - though this will be a lagging effect, because even starving people have sex.”

PeopleWayBelieveMightWishSexWaterCitiesSuccessfulEffectsProjectsTownsPopulationConvincedLocalsFortunateSmall TownFarmingStarvingTransportRailSuburbiaWater Power
Author:James Howard Kunstler
Create image

“Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.”

HomeEarthNamesFunEnvironmentTreeSocietyStreetsGreenEnvironmentalForestsIronicEcologyOur EnvironmentMother EarthSuburbsPlanet EarthEarth DayDevelopersSave Mother EarthTree Of LifeColumnistsEarth And NatureGreen EarthForests And TreesWorld EnvironmentBeautiful EarthGreen LivingSave The EnvironmentSave The PlanetCurmudgeonWorld Earth DaySuburbiaGreen TreesArbor DayInspirational EarthInspirational TreeSaving The EarthLove And NatureHappy Earth DaySave Our PlanetHome Environment
Author:Bill Vaughan
Create image

“With breathtaking rapidity, we are destroying all that was lovely to look at and turning America into a prison house of the spirit. The affluent society, with relentless single-minded energy, is turning our cities, most of suburbia and most of our roadways into the most affluent slum on earth.”

LooksEarthAmericaSpiritHouseEnergyCitiesPrisonLovelyDestroyingConsumerismRelentlessOverconsumptionSlumsAffluentBreathtakingSuburbia
Book:This is Eric Sevareid
Create image

“People in suburbia see trees differently than foresters do. They cherish every one. It is useless to speak of the probability that a certain tree will die when the tree is in someone's backyard . . . . You are talking about a personal asset, a friend, a monument, not about board feet of lumber.”

PeopleCertainDiesSpeakTalkingTreeFeetUselessBoardsCherishAssetsProbabilityMonumentBackyardsSuburbiaLumber
Book:Field days: journal of an itinerant biologist
Create image

“Like most citizens of popular and international urban centres, I don't take advantage of the cultural opportunities. Perhaps this comes from growing up in suburbia. Home is where you eat, sleep, read, watch television and ignore your parents. It is not where you go to the ballet and then attend a heated panel discussion about it afterwards.”

HomeOpportunityParentSleepWatchesGrowing UpGrowingTelevisionCitizensAdvantageInternationalDiscussionBalletUrbanCentreSuburbia
Author:Sloane Crosley
Create image

“I have always found the suburbs very beautiful – the light, the change of seasons and so on. I am not so interested in the political dimensions of these things. I didn’t have any witticisms to land on suburbia. I was really just interested in how beautiful it was. I felt it was like a dreamscape and once I understood that was how I needed to approach it the dream started to expand in unusual ways.”

WayDreamLightBeautifulPoliticalFoundFeltLandNeededApproachUnderstoodSeasonsDimensionsUnusualSuburbsVery BeautifulSuburbiaSeasons Change
Author:Bill Henson
Create image

“We exist because of suburbia. Suburbia is a freak’s dreamworld, a world of extra rooms upstairs and long, lazy afternoons with no interference. A place where you can listen to your LPs for hours on end. You can live in your room, your own rent-free corner of the universe, and create a world of pleasure and interest entirely centered on yourself and your interior aesthetic and logic.”

WorldLongEndsUniverseInterestHoursPleasureRoomsLogicCornersExtrasLazyAfternoonFreakAestheticInteriorsInterferenceUpstairsYour RoomSuburbia
Book:Eat the Document: A Novel
Create image