Bill Cosby Quotes

A lot of other bands have tried to go out there and say we've got views on this and views on that. But some of it I've found opportunist. Duran Duran has always been honest about everything. We've always laid everything out.

No matter what road I take, I can never get too far away from the conscious lyric and the socially conscious content.

In Japan, there has always been a small number of musicians who have been outspoken on social issues, but they tend to be dismissed as radical.

I've always been known for making socially conscious music in the midst of the love songs and the bedroom songs.

I have very purposely never signed up with commercial lecture agencies as most, I think, prominent historical authors do because, to me, that's a contradiction of who I believe I am given my absorption of the teaching of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think right about now we have to beware of marketed Malcolms and Martins. Real people do real things.

Ultimately, you have to not worry about people thinking you should have played him differently. You're the one playing the part so it has to be yours.

At the time it seemed like a natural development of my interest in what was going on around me in society.

We're not a political band, we're a socially-minded band.

I can't control what people think. I'm not trying to manipulate people's thoughts or sentiments. I write all the time. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. It's machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop, and my ambitions are different.

When I hear the words 'activist filmmaking,' I think of somebody who's an activist, who wants to prove a particular point.

I think comics should test people, I think it's our job to go too far. That way we know as a society what too far is. Where else are you going to hear it?

We didn't start out to make a protest record at all. That would have been too shallow. As usual, it was simply a case of absorbing what's going on around us.

I don't believe there can be a poetic novel without political consciousness. I have a strong political conscience.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.

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.

I want everything to be an honest extension of me. What better way than me talking? It's a direct connection with everyone. With film and television, you make great projects, but stand-up is the thing that is completely yours.

I want people to know my political point of view. There's an appetite for that, almost an expectation. I also want to make people laugh, but I wouldn't want to do it at the expense of my point of view.

I feel comfortable putting my political stances out there without feeling as though I am filling some sort of quota. I don't have a wokeness quota for the day.

I want to be able to deliver the kind of show that I want - to go onstage with my chin held up.

I sing about social issues, not the boy-girl stuff.

Because of my song 'Sam Stone,' a lot of people thought I was interested in writing protest songs. Writing protest songs always struck me as patting yourself on the back.

I just always make honest music. I just always kinda do what I wanna do.

Whatever big movie I work in, ultimately my concern is my personality. I make sure that I keep it up.

I'm not one to go down that road to say I have some kind of social consciousness.