Creative Advocacy Quotes

I think if you're going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can't just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.

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 it's our responsibility as artists to not only fight for our art but fight for the communities that are the reason we're able to continue making art, especially since, in Brooklyn's case, we as artists somehow made it 'cool' enough for the bigger money-making industries to start taking over.

Truth and beauty can still win battles. We need more art, more passion, more wit in defense of the Earth.

Being an activist and an artist - those two things should go together. You should allow the artistic sensibility to control some of your activism, but never should it be allowed to paralyze you.

Scientists are always the ones who head into the ocean, but I want to take writers and politicians, people who can convey the beauty that is there and perhaps do something to take care of it.

As a successful artist it is my job to give the indie scene as much of a push as I can.

We as visual artists need to continue to be renegades and say, "Yes I am here to do a project, but what is the social service?"

I had a dual role: designer and advocate.

Artists have really never had any representation on Capitol Hill, because it's not the nature of the artist to join together and make a unified presence. Those days kind of died in the '60s.

The world would be better off if more musicians were involved in politics.

The role that theater has placed in enhancing consciousness and moving systems ahead. I think of what South African theater meant for the apartheid movement, for example. I think of what music has meant for so many social movements across time.

Burmese authors and artists can play the role that artists everywhere play. They help to mold the outlook of a society - not the whole outlook and they are not the only ones to mold the outlook of society, but they have an important role to play there. And I think if they take up this role seriously and link it to the kind of changes were wish to bring about in our country they could be a tremendous help.

For me, I've always been one that reads a script and has been ready, wiling and able to go out and fight for parts.

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.

I support the idea that artists have to make a stand. I'm with that - you're putting the discussion on the table and you're letting people know. You're being brave as an artist and responsible to the community.

I think it would be very good if writers and artists take a stand in electoral politics. They've got the ability to put words together that might reach the ears of the people of the city who vote.