Madonna Ciccone Quotes

I'm a civic busybody and I've been blessed with an active career.

It's very important that people who are feeling the need to do something... get activated.

Every one of us has the ability to raise awareness, volunteer, educate our friends and family, and give back to our communities.

I was very engaged in my communities throughout college, but I never thought of it as political.

It went beyond idealism and that ridiculous term "activism," which basically means talking about something but doing nothing. . . . We made giving exciting.

Most of the time we do nothing, myself included, I think the lesson I learned from [playing humanitarian Tessa in The Constant Gardner] is that a lot of drops make up an ocean. If people would stand up and say what they believe in maybe we can make a difference. Helping one person is better than nothing. Just do something.

I would like to inspire a lot of people to be active and give back.

I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That's the important thing.

I often tell people I don't care whether they join the NAACP or some other group, but you better join something.

When all you can think of is your own personal problems, you have nothing to give to your society. If you're trying to figure out where your next meal is coming from, you can't go march on Washington.

Believe in something larger than yourself... get involved in the big ideas of your time.

You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can't succeed without your help.

I don't want young people to think they can't make a difference because they don't have money.

When enough people care about autism or diabetes or global warming, it helps everyone, even if only a tiny fraction actively participate.

I've tried to be active in civic organizations as well as the Church.

In the U.K., a lot of writers won't show up to support activist issues because they figure they're already repairing the world. I don't want to be one of those people.

I think people instinctively know that their job is to give service and that they are part of a community. It had a great impact on me when my father walked the picket lines and I walked with him during the civil rights movement.

I do feel, in a sense, the rules of engagement for citizenship has changed, and we must encourage other people to speak up and to take action.

I believe in helping young people rock causes they care about because I was one of those young people... a long time ago.

My individual power is limited. I want to use my high-profile way to wake people up to take action together to do good things. I can only awake them with my performance art and creativity.

You know, there's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

Being in service and being involved in something that is greater than you is what makes a person complete and whole. The very first thing I ever did in terms of activism was for an anti-atom bomb rally.

Part of my role and part of my job is to shine a spotlight on issues that need that spotlight, whether it's people, whether it's causes, issues, whatever it is.

Getting in the community, working with the kids, was a way that I felt like I could get out and make a change.