Glenn Ligon Quotes

I was 100 percent political in the '80s - the first time around, let's call it, my first life as an artist.

What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.

But I am not political in the current events sense, and I have never wanted anyone to read my poetry that way.

Any form of art is political if you make it that way.

All good art should be political, I think, and inevitably it all becomes political really, in one way or another.

Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.

A lot of artists say, I'm not political. People are afraid of this word.

It is difficult to make political art work.

As for political poetry, as it's usually defined, it seems there's very little good political poetry.

People are always wondering if I am an artist or political activist or politician. Maybe I'll just clearly tell you: Whatever I do is not art. Let's say it is just objects or materials, movies or writing, but not art, OK?

I do write songs with a political dimension to them sometimes, but I'm always slightly appalled by it when I do.

As a political artist, I think you have to learn how to create art, no matter what your ideology is.

I have been a politically conscious citizen. I've been an artist, a reader, and have been chiselled by that.

We've never been as active politically as we have been as artists. But politics always brush up against the arts, oh, about every four years in this country.

The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.

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 don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political intelligence in my own right.

Well, I wouldn't say that this experience had any influence on my decision to do this film about Andy, because Andy was apolitical. Andy was never political.

It has always seemed slightly uncomfortable, the idea of politicised musicians. Very few of them are clever enough to do it; if they're good at the political side, the music side suffers, and vice versa.

Artists look at the environment, and the best artists correctly diagnose the problem. I'm not saying artists can't be leaders, but that's not the job of art, to lead. Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte - there are artists all through history who have become leaders, but that was already in them, nothing to do with their art.

I'm not a politician; I'm lucky to be a filmmaker and to be able to express myself through the films I make.

I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from it.

I don't set out to write a political song. I am not one of those that feels compelled to write about what's going on.

I took a political stance early on, but I don't think my work is overtly political. I respond to events.

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