Mary Lambert Quotes

There's a power in what we hold as artists, and part of that comes with responsibility... to share the human experience and really allow that to be seen.

I originally wanted to embrace the imagery and forthrightness of rap music. There are some interesting, dynamic voices in rap. But I find most of it irresponsible in its overt violence and commercialization of anger. As artists, we believe we can will action through language. If that's the case, we have to take responsibility for what we say.

I can't imagine myself outside any kind of social or political involvement. Yes, I'm a writer, but I live in this world, and my writing doesn't exist on a separate level. And if people know who I am and read my books, well, good; that way, if I have something more to say, then everyone benefits.

I believe the artist has an obligation to society.

All I owe the world is my art.

The impact of a conscious artist is necessary, and it ripples through the world.

Contemporary art will never achieve the audience of football, pop music, or television, so I think we should stop comparing its possible area of influence to that of big mass-media events.

Fame can amplify the message of art in a remarkable, meaningful way.

At this point, in 2008, if you put out a book, a movie, or write a verse, paint a painting, it should have some sort of social value.

A song's lyrics can't be held culprit for the overall change in society.

As an artist, you tend to identify your sphere of influence and try to employ that as best you can to hopefully be useful.

It is in its pure form that an art hits hard.

It's an artist's choice to speak up about social issues, but I think it's really important, and my favorite artists have spoken out.

It's my job as an artist and as an actor to use this platform to make people learn and grow, to change their perspectives on how things are in whatever way I can.

I believe an artiste is a reflection of society. I write what I see. I am not a scholar, I am just an entertainer. I cannot change the way people think.

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

Theater should address the stories of its communities, or I don't know why it's here.

I don't like the notion that artists have a responsibility to be political.

Though I know consciousness kind of boxes you in, it still encompasses the artists that I knew were conscious throughout history of music - they're the ones that you look at as the legends.

It is always understood as an expression of condemnation when anything in Literature or Art is said to be done for effect; and yet to produce an effect is the aim and end of both.

As you grow older you realize that art has an enormous effect. It's frightening sometimes to think of the effect that we can have.

All great art ... creates in the beholder not self-satisfacti on but wonder and awe. Its great liberation is to lift us out of ourselves.

As an artist, even if you are putting out something really dark and disturbing, that's good because it's opening a discussion. Always in the back of my mind is this thought that the world has to be a better place with you in it.

In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of non-conformity alive. Thanks to them the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is important.

I guess that storytelling would be for me to keep making art that touches people in a way that nothing else can.