Khalil Gibran Quotes

Being independent gives me freedom to creatively be great. Standing on your own doesn't always get major exposure or support, but because I make music from a pure place, I am more so excited and relieved that it actually gets out into the universe.

My favorite thing is being able to follow my inspiration, and the freedom of being a writer is hard to beat.

The liberty of the press would be an empty sound, and no man would venture to write on any subject however pure his purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other. From minds thus subdued by the fear of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason, nor any masterly compositions on the general nature of governmetn ...

This reporter approaches the matter with rather fresh memories of friends in Austria, Germany and Italy who either died or went into exile because they refused to admit the right of their government to determine what they should say, read, write or think…. Movies should be judged by what appears on the screen, newspapers by what appears in print and radio by what comes out of the loudspeaker. The personal beliefs of the individuals involved would not seem to be a legitimate field of inquiry. When bankers, or oil or railroad men are hauled before a congressional committee, it is not customary to question them about their beliefs.

Apropos of the agitation for abolishing the Censor in England, it occurred to me that not even the advocates of freedom seek to justify the free treatment of sexual matters in any other than a high moral-pointing vein. The notion that sexual themes might allowably be treated in the mere aim of amusement does not seem to have occurred to anybody at all.

I don’t think that they would have allowed me to make The Best Years of Our Lives just a few years after I made it [in 1946].

It's obvious that I come down on the side of free speech for anybody's work.

Filmmakers and artists always thrive during more liberal times.

I'm just singing a song, and if people want to laugh, that's their business.

I'd like to shut off all the noise and allow people to be creative without all the judgments and standards that we think we have to follow.

If the creative artist worries if he will still be free tomorrow, then he will not be free today.

Historically, art and music and writing and film have been one of the only tools that is effective against tyranny.

I think writing a solo play was the most liberating thing I ever did.

I just lived openly, as loud as I wanted to be, which translated into our music really well.

I don't like to box myself into anything, because I also sing and I love to dance; I do everything.

To work with different singers gives us creative freedom because we can experiment with different sounds on every song.

I will always demand the right for theatre to talk about anything and anyone. Without exception. None.

I never do any song with any expectation.

To have art suppressed is very dangerous to society.

The freer a society becomes, the freer its arts can flourish and be exported.

Art is where we make a stand. If we don't make it there, freedom of expression is lost for everyone - for artists, for journalists, and for everyday people.

I loved the freedom of improvised music.

We don't play to be seen. I'm addicted to music, not audiences.

Jazz is neither specific repertoire, nor academic exercise... but a way of life.

It is the freedom to blaspheme, to transgress, to move beyond the pale, that is at the heart of all intellectual, artistic and political endeavor. Far from censoring offensive speech, a vibrant and diverse society should encourage it. In any society that is not uniform, grey and homogeneous, there are bound to be clashes of viewpoints.