Woody Harrelson Quotes

I'm a sort of political person, and I feel that there's a kind of ineradicably political dimension to theater, to all theater, whether it's overtly political or not.

I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.

Cinema will always have an important role to play in society.

Hollywood likes to boast that it can elevate the national conscience.

Although for some people cinema means something superficial and glamorous, it is something else. I think it is the mirror of the world.

Anytime you can be a part of something that hopefully tries to make a cultural contribution, I love the idea of that.

Whether I act or direct I ensure that there is a social message attached.

If people are coming to 'Hamilton' to leave their politics behind, you came to the wrong show.

I pour my blood, sweat, and tears into a movie. What I always look for is a message and a social consciousness: a relevance to what's happening in our world.

It's always great to do a movie that you find is entertaining, but also can give some sort of political or social message.

My main object in making a motion picture is entertainment. If at the same time I can strike a blow for liberty, then I'll stick one in.

A good writer cannot avoid having social consciousness. I don't mean this about small pieces of writing, but about a big book. If it's a big book, there has to be more than one undertow.

Movies have power. Power to impact society and the choices we make. I want to entertain, but I also want to say something to the world.

As much as I hate his movies, Oliver Stone has an aspiration I admire, and that is that he wants his art to be part of what makes and changes public policy and cultural practice.

I prefer to make movies which not only have a message for 'then' but a message for 'now.'

I think there is a debate in the arts about, you know, whether we must strive for art for art's sake, and you know, kind of try to keep political debate out of our work. And to that I say, I'd like you to show me an example of, you know, this so-called apolitical art. I don't think there's any such thing.

I wouldn't characterize my work, however, as directly political.

I think the good thing about Macklemore is that he is very precise about what he gets involved in. As you can tell, he's very passionate about what he puts his name on, because he talks about things people don't usually talk about, and his concepts are very, very passionate.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

With a movie you're creating from the beginning this particular work, let's not call it work of art, because very few movies are works of art, let's just call them bits of popular culture, whatever they are, sometimes very rarely by accident a movie becomes a work of art.

A great byproduct of a TV show, movie, or play is when it can act as a catalyst for someone.

I want to make it clear: it's not that I hate mainstream cinema. It's perfectly fine. There are a lot of people who need to escape, because they are in very difficult situations, so they have the right to escape from the world. But this has nothing to do with an art form.

I've never been a part of a film before that offers such a platform into real issues, that raises social awareness and has the potential to change things.

I'm not really sure what social message my art carries, if any. And I don't really want it to carry one. I'm not interested in the subject matter to try to teach society anything, or to try to better our world in any way.

To show that a comedian on stage in India talking about sanitation or in South Africa talking about HIV and AIDS awareness, if you follow the joke into their lives, you can see that, like, oh, these things aren't just contrived in joke books. This is real life. I think the best comedians have that bravery and courage to say, Oh, this is what it is.