Skip to main content

Life & Wisdom Quote by Wayne Kramer

"But when I was a teenager, the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise"

About this Quote

There is a whole class politics packed into Kramer s plainspoken dread. The factory is not just a job site; it s a life sentence, a script handed down with the quiet force of inevitability. By calling it real depressing, he keeps the language blunt, almost under-described, which is exactly why it lands: the understatement mirrors how working-class hopelessness often gets normalized. No melodrama, just the claustrophobia of a future already chosen.

The pivot word is possibilities. Kramer frames music less as destiny than as an exit ramp. That matters. He is not romanticizing art as pure self-expression; he is describing it as a practical revelation, a sudden widening of the map. In that subtext is a critique of how limited the menu of acceptable lives can feel when you are young and surrounded by industrial routine. The factory represents security, but also surrender: stability purchased with the slow erosion of curiosity.

Contextually, this reads as a snapshot of late-20th-century American youth culture where rock was a credible alternative economy, a way to convert anger and imagination into mobility. The line also quietly acknowledges luck and access: opened up some possibilities I didn t see otherwise implies the options existed but were culturally invisible. Kramer s intent is testimonial, but its broader charge is structural. He is naming the moment when art stops being a hobby and becomes a refusal: not of work, but of a life without choice.

Quote Details

TopicCareer
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Kramer, Wayne. (n.d.). But when I was a teenager, the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-i-was-a-teenager-the-idea-of-spending-129036/

Chicago Style
Kramer, Wayne. "But when I was a teenager, the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise." FixQuotes. Accessed February 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-i-was-a-teenager-the-idea-of-spending-129036/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But when I was a teenager, the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-i-was-a-teenager-the-idea-of-spending-129036/. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Wayne Add to List
Wayne Kramer on Music and Life's Possibilities
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Wayne Kramer is a Writer from USA.

13 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes