“The defining characteristic of America is our fanaticism: We dream big, we think large, we create grandeur. We invented Hollywood, rock ’n’ roll, blue jeans, the Gold Rush, cable TV with thousands of channels, a military that is larger than those of the next ten combined, the shopping mall, and a store that sells nothing but socks. We invented Elvis Presley and teen idols, we invented the phonograph and the movie camera, we invented Disneyland and the roller coaster, baseball and apple pie. We invented the Internet—oh, yes we did—and the anonymous comment. We didn't invent the wheel, but we did come up with the Model T; we didn't invent the wing, but we did give the world the airplane and the miracle of flight. We didn’t invent the computer, but we did invent the PC and everything that everyone can do at home; we didn’t invent the telephone, but we did invent the iPhone and everything that everyone can do in the palm of his hand. We invented Thomas Edison and Henry Ford and Steve Jobs: so there. We invented personality: so there, motherfucker.”

Explore more quotes:


About the author

This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.