Earle Brown Quotes

I mean, there's a hell of a lot of grounds for protest, but you don't do it through music.

It has always seemed slightly uncomfortable, the idea of politicised musicians. Very few of them are clever enough to do it; if they're good at the political side, the music side suffers, and vice versa.

People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.'

It is difficult to make political art work.

I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.

But I think it's quite clear in my work that my orientation isn't political or doesn't come out of modern politics.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

I don't think music should be played anywhere near politics. The two don't go together.

Music should never be harmless.

All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.

I don't write political music. Political music is immediately obsolete.

I do have a big problem with the idea of music as a form of communication unless it's political - and that's where it's tricky because a lot of music is political, even if it's not overtly so. But my music isn't that; it's about a feeling.

I feel like politics have always informed what I do. If you know anything about my music, you know I've never been shy about stating how I vote.

When I was 20, political music was the uncoolest thing on earth.

It is very easy to make clear what you want a film to say, but I did not wish to engage in overt propaganda, even for the right cause. I wanted to create an experience through the films, something where people could have the freedom of their own response to them.

There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda. Propaganda can be written by anybody, including dictators.

Political art expresses the cliches you agree with, unlike propaganda, which expresses the cliches you don't.

I write music to please myself. Hopefully the director's enjoying it too.

Music and fashion are a sign of the times and a reflection of what people want and need at this very day and age.

I view music as entertainment. When I'm on stage, I don't look at that as a platform for sharing ideology. Otherwise I'd be a zealot myself. That's why, when people ask me, 'Do you think you can change the world through your music?' I say, 'I doubt it.'

It wasn't my natural inclination to get into writing protest songs.

When I make a film, I never want the film to become a vehicle of social propaganda. If I wanted to do that, I'd make documentaries.

I don't think any musician ever thinks about making a statement. I think everybody goes into music loving it.

It gets quite difficult for me when I listen to pop music. I don't often understand the words, but when someone translates them to me, I think, 'What is this song representing? That women are just there to be treated like objects?'

Whether you're talking about Shakespeare or, you know, if you look at Greek tragedies. I mean, every playwright, every songwriter, every artist who's ever sat down and been moved to create something, has been living in a context. A political moment that's most often reflected in their work. Even if you're, you know, kind of a nature poet.