All art is political in the sense that it serves someone's politics.
I tell myself I use art to promote dissent, but maybe I am just using dissent to promote my art. I plead not guilty to selling out. But I plead it from a bigger house than I used to live in.
The best art is either political or revolutionary....Those things that are powerfully revolutionary are not always successful in the market place.
I really think that music itself, being one of the greatest possible vehicles for mass communication, should be probed to its extremes, to see how effective it can actually become, which is one of the reasons why I became also interested in presenting political points of view.
So begins a question which has of late become more and more urgent: what is the relation of aesthetics to politics?
I don't believe any real artists have ever been non-political. They may have been insensitive to this particular plight or insensitive to that, but they were political, because that's what an artist is-a politician.
If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. He's not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, he's really needed.
Artists have different responsibilities in different eras. But at this point, I really feel like it's all hands on deck. An artist that's fiddle-faddling in opaque, gossamer gestures - I mean it's fine to do that, totally fine, but there's no time left. We don't have the luxury of time anymore.
I think a culture can really be elevated through the arts, and it's always a dream come true when I come across roles that enable me to fuse my love of storytelling with my passion for activism and raising social awareness.
My role as an artist is not to make changes [in society] but to inspire changes.
Wouldn't it be grand if we thought that theater could have that impact on the political life of a country?
Some people feel that it's controversial if I say that because my dad is known as a political artist. But I don't really believe that he was a political artist. I think some of his songs were political, and I think they were incredible because he was able to make art that was political and that wasn't pedantic. But I think he was unique in being able to do that.
I feel like being an artist and being an activist are separate things; I know some people who feel very differently.
It is the artists of the world, the feelers and the thinkers who will ultimately save us; who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing and shout the big dreams.
I think I'll always be a better playwright than a pundit, but I believe that writers should be public intellectuals and that theater, even more than film, is a place of public debate.
I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned.
If artists cannot speak up for human dignity or rights, then who else will do it?
I am not a politician nor an activist but in my small way try and bring change with the kind of films I do.
My acting and activism go hand-in-hand, and they really support one another.
I definitely believe that art is the best way to produce social change.
In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.
Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.
The arts can bring the heart to the aid of the head, the personal to the political.
I remember going to see Amiri Baraka. It wasn't actually too long before he died. He said, "You've got to write to change the world!" I was like, "Not me, no, no, no, no."
I'm an actor. I love acting and being able to use my love, my passion, to also contribute to making this a better society, a better democracy, and a better country.
