Arundhati Roy Quotes

For me, 'revolution' simply means radical change.

Revolution is not a goal in itself.

It's about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It's not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them... 'Black Messiah' is not one man. It's a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.

Real change never occurs from the top on down, [but] always from the bottom on up.

When real substantive change happens it's the people who watch your show, they're the ones that make it happen. It's people whose names are not highlighted in history books. They're the ones that stand up in their place and time to make change.

The revolution starts at the bottom.

While the revolution will be certainly televised, it strikes me that there is a strong possibility that the revolution will also be crowd-funded.

The Occupy Wall Street project feels like a burning ember that might light the torch of justice and inflame our longing for freedom.

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

Rebellion is obsolete - change things from the inside working out.

If you compromise in any kind of movement or any kind of wave of revolution, if you sort of play the game, things are gonna change far more slowly than you need them to.

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.

It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

Social change comes through people.

America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.

Agitate, agitate, agitate.

Silence never won rights. They are not handed down from above; they are forced from pressures from below.

If you want to change a country, you're going to be bumped every now and then.

The Adequate Protest demands far more than protests. It calls for Great and Daring Leaps of Integrity and Courage to See.

I intend to go up there and kick the system over, not try to change it.

If I wanted to change the world, the last thing I would do is write a play.

I am not a politician. I am just a simple person who has come to break down this system.

You can't change the world through the parliamentary system.

In Chile, they had penas, where the community would come together to sing and plan how they were going to overthrow the government. There's a real hopefulness in that community style of organizing.

Especially in the sphere of social activism, I think we tend to unwittingly conceptualize progress or revolution as black and white and having a clear beginning and end.