Latest Jello Biafra Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I went to Seattle as just another geek in the food chain, thinking, "Well, in my own puny little way, I'd rather be a part of history than just sit and watch it on TV." So, the fact that so many people are starting to ask the right questions and rack their brains for solutions does give me hope.

  Jello Biafra

  Thinking, People, Giving

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I think one of the beauties so far of the so-called Spirit of Seattle is there aren't any leaders, pop stars, or guru figures that everyone else is falling in line with and following. No [Nelson] Mandela, Havel, or Subcomandante Ski Mask riding in on a white horse and everybody else just wanting to follow them to the promised land. We're stitching it together and doing it ourselves.

  Jello Biafra

  Horse, Stars, Fall

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• As a human being with notoriety and a big mouth, I've felt most threatened during the first Bush Administration. Whenever there's a Bush in the White House, many people die, and the rest of us are threatened. I just didn't think it would happen quite so quickly. The so-called USA Patriot Act, and the announcement of trying people in military tribunals if Bush or Rumsfeld's or Ashcroft's people think they somehow qualify as terrorists, basically, this is McCarthyism run amok.

  Jello Biafra

  Running, Military, Thinking

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I never expected the movement against globalization and corporate rule to mushroom as quickly as it has, either. And right now the strongest electoral arm of that movement is the Green Party. I try to stress to people cynical about voting that the Greens are the most effective electoral arm of the so-called Spirit of Seattle, and it's great fun to cause trouble in the streets, but that's not going to accomplish much without insurrection in the voting booth at the same time.

  Jello Biafra

  Fun, Stress, Party

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• We've never had a situation where mass media has been so censored, at least in my lifetime. When I was younger, networks like NBC, CBS, were independently owned, and took their jobs as journalists seriously. There used to be documentaries like "The Selling of the Pentagon."

  Jello Biafra

  Jobs, Nbc, Media

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I would hate to have "Holiday in Cambodia" become as tiresome to other people as hearing "Like a Rock" in a Chevrolet commercial.

  Jello Biafra

  Hate, Holiday, Rocks

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• One of the best things that's come out of the Seattle protests is the birth of the Independent Media Center. It's not as though the independent media movement wasn't already there, but it's given it another jump-start. There's the feeling that not only should we report on our underground culture and our own situation, but now we have to start telling people what's really going on at a time when everything from CNN to USA Today is as tightly controlled as Tass or Pravda.

  Jello Biafra

  Independent, Media, Usa

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• When "Search and Destroy" by the Stooges came on as a Nike shoe commercial, I got physically sick. That song meant the world to me, and I didn't feel this was the way it ought to be used.

  Jello Biafra

  Nike, Song, Shoes

• I don't know whether I see it as slipping inside the villains, but part of what makes Ralph Nader and Michael Moore such effective speakers and communicators is that they know how corporate culture works, how our lawmaking bodies really work, and where the bones are buried.

  Jello Biafra

  Culture, Body, Slipping

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• In the case of Michael Moore, having a deep, I'd even say passionate, understanding of other types of people in America who might be progressive thinkers without even realizing it.

  Jello Biafra

  America, People, Understanding

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• All my different kinds of artwork have been designed to inspire people to think. They may not always agree with me, but at least they will have some feelings and some passion about whatever it is.

  Jello Biafra

  Passion, Thinking, People

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I think there's plenty of room, even in the most serious activist circles, for humor. Humor can be very effective both to inspire, and as a weapon. Just ask Frank Zappa and Charlie Chaplin.

  Jello Biafra

  Thinking, Circles, Inspire

• It's very irresponsible as a parent to follow Tipper Gore or the Religious Right's advice and just take the offending CD or game away from the kid without discussing it.

  Jello Biafra

  Religious, Kids, Offending

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• To this day, we get letters at Alternative Tentacles from young teenagers who hide their Dead Kennedys albums behind their mirror or in the mattress of their bed. Wouldn't it be better if the parents just discussed this with the kids instead of creating this culture of sneaking and dishonesty within the family? The moral of the story being, you don't hide reality from your kids because then they grow up to be smarter, more aware adults.

  Jello Biafra

  Growing Up, Teenager, Kids

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I was born in the late '50s, was a child of the '60s, then the '70s, then the '80s, then the '90s, and I have mental fingers in all those pies.

  Jello Biafra

  Children, Pie, Born

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• News footage came on the TV during dinner of bloody bodies coming back from battle in Vietnam, or the race riots in the South, people getting hosed in Selma, Alabama, or the Biafra war, where I got my name. In my household, it was explained and discussed with the children, as a way of educating us from when we first started grade school why racism and war were wrong, what this all really means.

  Jello Biafra

  Children, War, School

• Another part of what gave me a questioning, rabble-rousing, activist heart and soul is that when all these heavy events went down, my parents did not shelter the kids from it.

  Jello Biafra

  Heart, Kids, Parent

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• The boyfriend of the student music teacher came in: "Hey, kids, this is a real Air Force pilot." I asked him something to the effect of how it felt to be dropping bombs on children in Vietnamese villages. And it got very icy in there all of a sudden, and finally the teacher said, "Oh, well, Eric reads a lot of newspapers. Next question."

  Jello Biafra

  Teacher, Children, Real

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I'm appalled at how many people my age, or even five or ten years younger, have no tangible memories of important history that happened when we were growing up.

  Jello Biafra

  Growing Up, Memories, Years

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• I was the kid in the class who was looking for the angles to question things or make wise-ass remarks, not knowing enough to be afraid of being myself or showing intelligence. But I wasn't the only kid like that in my classes because of where I grew up. I'm really thankful I grew up in a town where there were a lot of other mutant kids. I'm from Boulder, Colorado, which went through a lot of dramatic changes when I was growing up.

  Jello Biafra

  Wise, Growing Up, Kids

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• When my sixth grade teacher opened the class with subtle praise for the guardsmen shooting four people to death at Kent State, I'd given up arguing with her by that point. But I was very riled up inside and vowed that I would never forget that.

  Jello Biafra

  Teacher, Class, People

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• Method acting has had a major influence both in writing through the eyes of other people, and seeing through the eyes of other people, trying to address different ideas in a way that would go beyond preaching to the choir.

  Jello Biafra

  Writing, Eye, Ideas

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• Looking back, I didn't realize until years later what a huge influence Red Skelton was in my stage demeanor with the band. I mean, I always liked things that were funny, and later I realized that having a sly sense of humor was a way to get attention and even respect in school.

  Jello Biafra

  School, Mean, Years

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• A lot of the best acting training I had was in junior high and high school. We had very demanding directors and did real plays. You put our plays up against any theater troupe of any age, and they usually did pretty damn well.

  Jello Biafra

  Real, School, Play

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.

• From the beginning, there was so much pressure in the early San Francisco punk scene for everyone to be different than everyone else, to flaunt your intelligence and insights instead of every band sounding alike, like what plagues punk music in particular today.

  Jello Biafra

  San Francisco, Different, Band

  Interview with Jodi Vander Molen, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. February 1, 2002.