Creative Protest Quotes

During the Vietnam War, which lasted longer than any war we've ever been in - and which we lost - every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high.

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.

I don't understand how any good art could fail to be political.

I did a film that's on YouTube of me reading hate mail with a woman playing the cello in the background.

The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.

Art is activism.

I am an artist and a political being as well.

My paintings must burn that English artists might finally learn.

Writing is a form of activism.

Any form of art is political if you make it that way.

All good art should be political, I think, and inevitably it all becomes political really, in one way or another.

To create is to resist; to resist is to create.

Rather than trying to put an end to Eminem or some other rapper, politicians should think about why they're rapping. It's easier to try to censor some kid who's swearing about poverty than it is to stop the poverty.

Chinese artists have been subversive over thousands of years, taking what they think of the government and embedding it in their art. There might be censorship of not going as far as they might.

To me art is a form of manifest revolt, total and complete.

When I took my shirt off against Caen, everybody asked what these new tattoos were. I had 15 removable tattoos on my body; they are the names of real people who are suffering from hunger in the world.

It is difficult to make political art work.

There is no music that can't be used politically, but the motives behind the creation of that music can be non-political.

Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.

I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen.

When all else fails, dress beautifully and throw your food.

I don't know if I would describe myself as a political artist.

We need that expression. Whether we want to call it protest or not, we need to express and echo the echoes of the people. Artists need to do that.

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

The only duty an artist has is in the quality of the art. There is no moral obligation to denounce. An artist confronted with a tremendous injustice sometimes feels inclined to say something. Denouncing the situation is the artist's choice.