Artists are meant to be madmen, to disturb and shock us.
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people.
Freedom includes the right to say what others may object to and resent... The essence of citizenship is to be tolerant of strong and provocative words.
I really feel that artists or musicians are controversial people. Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity. If people are not doing that, they're not artists - they're artisans.
That's what art is, shocking people. Sometimes shocking yourself.
The artist is still a little like the old court jester. He's supposed to speak his vicious paradoxes with some sense in them, but he isn't part of whatever the fabric is that makes a nation.
It's sometimes hard to talk about politics and art. Obviously, I have my core beliefs, but I think art is best when it's troublesome and pushes against stuff.
Woolf wanted to say dangerous things in Orlando but she did not want to say them in the missionary position.
As a performer, I wanted to be the loudest, most persistent alarm clock I could be, because there didn’t seem like any other way to snap society out of its Christianity- and media-induced coma.
