David Friedman Quotes

I feel that my purpose is to shed light on some of the darker sides of our world, and to lend a hand and a voice to people struggling.

I want 'Flesh Of My Flesh' to be like my connection to the community, I want to say what's on my peoples' minds, soak up all their pain. I've learned that when I take it all in, I can make one brotha's pain be understood by the world.

When there's a terrible illness like AIDS sweeping through, you help people.

'Waterfalls' spoke to so many people at a time where people needed to feel like somebody was on their side.

All advocacy is, at its core, an exercise in empathy.

I was one of the first ones to participate in fundraisers for AIDS.

We are the party that hears the stories of people, the struggles.

Prince was not scared. The first time I heard someone sing about AIDS, it was Prince: 'In France, a skinny man died of a big disease with a little name.' He was not afraid of taboos.

The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.

I am passionate about human rights.

I nursed men back to sanity who were driven to despair. I solicited clothes for the ragged children, for the desperate mothers. I laid out the dead, the martyrs of the strike.

I've had some interesting roles along the way, but they tend to be cause-driven. They're always about something. There isn't time for character work as an actor because you're fighting the cause or mourning the child or fighting the disease, etc.

I'm a real person, and I'm angry. I'm trying to use this celebrity thing to get people some help. AIDS, poverty, racism - I want to be one of the hands that helps stop all that. I'll put it on my shoulders. I'll charge it to my account.

You have to remind people of their own struggles. It's a responsibility.

You have discovered so much kindness and good will to those you thought were oppressed, and had no helper, that I am sure you will not despise what I have wrote, if you judge it will be of any service to them.

We shall suffer no attachment to literature, no taste for abstract discussion, no love of purely intellectual theories, to seduce us from our devotion to the cause of the oppressed, the down trodden, the insulted and injured masses of our fellow men.

The mere fact of an American being present could help save the lives of innocent people. That's why I believe in the importance of bearing witness, to become a voice for the voiceless.

The cry of the oppressed has entered not only into my ears, but into my soul, so that while I live, I cannot hold my peace.

I'm a political poet - let us say a 'human' poet, a poet that's concerned with the plight of people who suffer. If words can be of assistance, then that's what I'm going to use.

I know for certain people I'm championing a struggle that they're going through.

I am with you heart and soul in the great cause to which you are devoting all your energy and your life.

I want to be prophetic and take stands and stand with those on the margins, and I want to laugh as much as I can.

To throw oneself to the side of the oppressed is the only dignified thing to do in life.

Passion and standing up for things can help create a sense of unity. But you still have to act a certain way.

AIDS is a horrible disease, and the people who catch it deserve compassion.