Joan Baez Quotes

My parents were political, so it's definitely in my bones. Wherever I am, I always seem to get involved with politics. I think, once it's in your bloodstream, it's always there. I love it.

I grew up in Sydney in a very political household, where we were all for the underdog.

I owe a lot to my dad, just for having provided the wrestling business for us to get into.

I'm always the one with the activist friends. I've been an activist very little.

I don't often get involved with campaigns at all.

I was an activist long before I even entertained the possibility of being an actor.

My dad spent his whole life getting into fights for telling what he believed to be the truth. Basically it comes from my dad-and he's screaming right-wing, so there you are.

Dad was a great advocate for social justice and a very quiet advocate of the essential Labor values.

I do try to separate my personal activism - showing up at a demonstration or something - from what I write.

I am political. But not politically active. I'm not my dad. I'll never write polemic, as he did.

I came back from university thinking I knew all about politics and racism, not knowing my dad had been one of the youngest-serving Labour councillors in the town and had refused to work in South Africa years ago because of the situation there. And he's never mentioned it - you just find out. That's a real man to me. A sleeping lion.

It came home to me indelibly that I was never going to change anything in America by walking around carrying a sign. It was a great revelation. It saved me a lot of anxiety and a lot of wasted energy.

I remember my dad supporting everyone on the local and national level. I was pretty much born into it. I saw the importance of politics firsthand. It gave you a chance to be at the table.

My mom was an environmental activist in Australia in the late '60s and '70s, and I guess I've inherited that awareness from her.

My father was a huge influence on me.

I think this Occupy Wall Street thing is great. I think that is a good thing and that people need to stand up, voice their opinions, and be heard.

My dad would write these sketches for me while I was at 'SNL.'

Being my dad's daughter has allowed me to do a lot of things that maybe another artist might not be able to do or wouldn't be necessarily embraced doing.

One of the things that I've always not liked is the modern players have always concentrated on dancing in the end zone and BSing when serious things were going on in this country that needed to be changed. So my opinion is that when these young people stand up and risk their careers, that's a good sign for everything and all of us.

When I was growing up, my parents were almost involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that.

Even though I grew up and I didn't always like getting dragged to the meetings or the rallies or the speeches, I developed a very strong respect for participating in a democratic process.

When I was in high school, people would ask me what I wanted to do, and I would always say I wanted to 'lead marches and give speeches.'

I fell in love with the legend of Paul Robeson as a kid. My dad would tell me all these amazing stories about his life and, bizarrely, ended up singing to Robeson on his deathbed.

As the Occupy Movement demonstrated, it's tough to change anything when you're talking about everything.

Some people see protesting as a bit of a dirty thing, and certainly the idea of getting arrested was not on people's radar.