Gil Scott-Heron Quotes

Quotes about:

• The first revolution is when you change your mind

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Mind, Firsts, Revolution

  139 Copy quote

• Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Can Do Something, Can Do

  Gil Scott-Heron (2011). “Now And Then”, p.69, Canongate Books

  106 Copy quote

• You will not be able to stay home, brother./You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out./You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,/Skip out for beer during commercials,/Because the revolution will not be televised.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Brother, Home, Beer

  Title of song (1974)

  154 Copy quote

• I am a black man dedicated to expression; expression of the joy and pride of blackness. I consider myself neither poet, composer, or musician. These are merely tools used by sensitive men to carve out a piece of beauty or truth that they hope may lead to peace and salvation.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Pride, Men, Expression

  Gil Scott-Heron (1990). “So Far, So Good”

  117 Copy quote

• America .. the international Jekyll and Hyde ... the land of a thousand disguises, sneaks up on you but rarely surprises

  Gil Scott-Heron

  America, Land, Hyde

  101 Copy quote

• Music has the power to make me feel good like nothing else does. It gives me some peace for a while. Takes me back to who I really am.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Giving, Feel Good, Doe

  82 Copy quote

• Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Nature, Men, Lakes

  120 Copy quote

• The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people's faces, because that's the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Mirrors, Expression, People

  "New York Is Killing Me: The unlikely survival of Gil Scott-Heron" by Alec Wilkinson, www.newyorker.com. August 09, 2010.

  87 Copy quote

• I've always had questions about what it meant to be a protester, to be in the minority. Are the people who are trying to find peace, who are trying to have the Constitution apply to everybody, are they really the radicals? We're not protesting from the outside. We're inside.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  People, Trying, Minorities

  84 Copy quote

• The revolution that takes place in your head, nobody will ever see that.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Revolution

  21 Copy quote

• If someone comes to you and asks for help, and you can help them, you're supposed to help them. Why wouldn't you? You have been put in the position somehow to be able to help this person.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Able, Helping, Position

  "Gil Scott-Heron, my brave and brilliant friend" by Jamie Byng, www.theguardian.com. May 28, 2011.

  89 Copy quote

• A good poet feels what his community feels.
  Like if you stub your toe, the rest of your body hurts.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Hurt, Community, Body

  "Gil Scott-Heron: More Than a Revolution" by Andrew Nosnitsky, pitchfork.com. January 18, 2012.

  63 Copy quote

• The revolution will be no re-run brothers,
  The revolution will be live.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Running, Brother, Revolution

  Song: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

  72 Copy quote

• All the dreams you show up in are not your own.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Dream, Shows

  "New York Is Killing Me: The unlikely survival of Gil Scott-Heron" by Alec Wilkinson, www.newyorker.com. August 09, 2010.

  46 Copy quote

• If we meet somebody who has never made a mistake, lets help them start a religion. Until then, were just going to meet other humans and help to make each other better.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Mistake, Helping, Made

  40 Copy quote

• Colour is not the issue in America; class is.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  America, Issues, Class

  47 Copy quote

• I don't mind being criticized. I enjoy being criticized personally, not by rumor.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Mind, Rumor, Enjoy

  67 Copy quote

• I try not to take people who haven't really thought out what they're doing too seriously. I try not to let them get in the way of what I feel I need to do.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  People, Trying, Needs

  Source: agitpropspace.org

  40 Copy quote

• You see Martin Luther King is dead and Huey Newton is not. And Malcolm X is dead and Bobby Seale is not. And Vernon Jordan was shot. The thing that revolutionaries, or even people who want to claim they're revolutionaries, often forget is that it doesn't make no difference what kind of wardrobe you wear, and if you speak up about Black people doing better you just risked your life.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Kings, Differences, People

  Source: agitpropspace.org

  43 Copy quote

• The way you get to know yourself is by the expression on other people's faces.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Expression, People, Way

  10 Copy quote

• Everything that's bad for you catches on too quickly in America, because that's the easiest thing to get people to invest in, the pursuits that are easy and destructive, the ones that bring out the least positive aspects of people.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  America, People, Easy

  47 Copy quote

• I think that the more people who speak out, and say things and take stands on positions that will better our community, the better off each and every other individual artist or otherwise, will be.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Artist, Thinking, Speaks Out

  Source: agitpropspace.org

  15 Copy quote

• My songs were always about the tone of voice rather than the words.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Song, Voice, Tone

  9 Copy quote

• Paul Robeson once said that the artist has the responsibility to either help liberate the community or further oppress it. And I think that when Eldridge Cleaver wrote it down it was interpreted as his, but there's a history of people saying things of that nature and meaning it. And what I do is in that tradition, in that mode.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Responsibility, Artist, Thinking

  Source: agitpropspace.org

  41 Copy quote

• I would say if you are familiar with our history and the history of our art and literature that you see a clear cut pattern of people wanting to contribute, not only artistically, but in some practical purpose, for the benefits of the community.

  Gil Scott-Heron

  Art, Cutting, People

  Source: agitpropspace.org

  10 Copy quote

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