Benjamin Clementine Quotes

Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

The freedom of every artist is essential.

I always tell students that writing a poem and publishing it are two quite separate things, and you should write what you have to write, and if you're afraid it's going to upset someone, don't publish it.

It may be that the most striking thing about members of my literary generation in retrospect will be that we were allowed to say absolutely anything without fear of punishment.

Anything that exists on the human palette is, from my point of view, fair game for artists to portray. You don't have to go see it if you don't want to, so don't go.

Obviously I don't want to make a film that offends people, but the whole world is so politically correct - I'm not going to not do something because it may be politically incorrect. At some point, the metaphors and allegories break down. They disappear, and you just have science fiction.

Performance artists in a free society have the right to do the most extraordinary and bizarre things. That’s called ‘Freedom of Speech.’

I'm lucky enough to exist in 2018, where I have a record label that's like, 'Write whatever you want to write.' I don't have to hide anything.

Art is where we make a stand. If we don't make it there, freedom of expression is lost for everyone - for artists, for journalists, and for everyday people.

That's the thing about being an artist, you don't have to take anyone else's perspective into account. You can act as self-indulgent in your emotions as you want.

Expression and the right to express is vital, anyone can be artistic.

There can be no freedom in art and literature where the government determines who shall create them.

Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is.

Freedom of speech is, to all Americans, as oxygen is to the human condition. It is a right that has been irreversibly programmed into our hard drive. We are free to speak our minds. An artist's right to express him or herself as best suits their art, is the artist's prerogative and it is guaranteed.

There shouldn't be any censorship on making a film.

I think artists need the freedom to fail and I gave myself that freedom.

A novelist has a specific poetic license which also applies to his own life.

I can be stupid in my lyrics or say whatever I want without having to worry about anybody else's feeling or anybody being embarrassed by it or anything like that.

Any director or writer or artist has the right to do what they want to do - freedom of expression is something I celebrate.

It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written.

As an artist you actually do have to make a choice to be an outsider. If you're an outsider you have the freedom to say what people on the inside don't dare to say.

I'm American. I'm eclectic. I'm going to follow my musical passions. And if people don't like it, and it hurts my legacy, I'm not going to worry about that.

Everybody is bound by some social rules. But I think that artists need some kind of freedom to explore their minds and that some of them tend to take that freedom to live a little more openly or a little more dangerously, sometimes a lot more self-destructively, than other people.

Artists can do whatever they want!

Performers have the right to say what they want to, and anyone paying money has the right to accept or reject the art and entertainment that's available.