"I'd love to go to art school. I'd love to learn how to draw. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish. I'd like to be a brain surgeon"
About this Quote
The list is funny because it escalates from plausible self-improvement (art school, drawing, Spanish) to the absurd flex of "brain surgeon". That jump isn’t just a punchline; it’s a critique of how we rank ambition. We praise curiosity until it starts sounding like reinvention, then we demand credentials, timelines, and seriousness. Armstrong’s phrasing refuses that policing. He’s claiming the right to want things without converting them into a résumé.
There’s also a pop-cultural subtext in "art school" that’s hard to ignore: the myth of the artist as someone who needs institutional permission to be “real.” Coming from a musician who made a career by bypassing gatekeepers, the line reads like a wink at the insecurity even successful artists carry. Under the humor is a familiar ache: the life you chose still contains a crowded room of other lives you didn’t get to try.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Armstrong, Billie Joe. (2026, January 15). I'd love to go to art school. I'd love to learn how to draw. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish. I'd like to be a brain surgeon. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-love-to-go-to-art-school-id-love-to-learn-how-39346/
Chicago Style
Armstrong, Billie Joe. "I'd love to go to art school. I'd love to learn how to draw. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish. I'd like to be a brain surgeon." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-love-to-go-to-art-school-id-love-to-learn-how-39346/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'd love to go to art school. I'd love to learn how to draw. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish. I'd like to be a brain surgeon." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/id-love-to-go-to-art-school-id-love-to-learn-how-39346/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.





