Latest Billy Bragg Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• We have laws to deal with people who defame other people's religion. We have laws to deal with people who try to blow up our citizens. We have due process. We have laws to deal with people who we capture during combat and war, but somehow Guantanamo Bay seems to be outside all that. And perhaps it's being maintained with the view to what people are talking about now, this idea of the "long war," that this is going to go on and on, and perhaps Iran is going to be next.

  Billy Bragg

  War, Blow, Long

  Source: music.avclub.com

• Certainly, the international image of the United States today is a lot less positive than 10 years ago. And that really shouldn't be, because you have been the victims of this awful terrorist attack, and I think America deserves the sympathy of the world.

  Billy Bragg

  Thinking, World, Today

  Source: music.avclub.com

• Today, rather than talk in terms of ideology or ideas like socialism, I think more important issues to discuss are things like compassion and accountability.

  Billy Bragg

  Thinking, Compassion, Accountability

  Source: music.avclub.com

• 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.

  Billy Bragg

  Art, Writing, Thinking

  Source: www.avclub.com

• What happened on September 11 wasn't the first act of war, it was the most unspeakable act of murder and terrorism. But it was construed by a very small group of people - there is no army out there in the dark waiting to take over America. It's like being stung by a bee and going out and smashing up a beehive, and thinking you've solved the problem. There are more beehives out there; more bees will come. But they're bees. They're not grizzly bears.

  Billy Bragg

  War, Dark, Army

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I don't mind being labeled as a political songwriter. I've chosen to do that. What really annoys me is being dismissed as a political songwriter. That really pains me, because life isn't all about love; it's not all about politics, either. It's a beautiful mixture of events that absolutely baffle you, and you think, "Why can't I do something about that?", whether those events are in your bedroom, or out there in the wide world. In our daily lives we engage with them at different times, and I'm trying to write about the whole human experience, or my perspective on it anyway.

  Billy Bragg

  Beautiful, Pain, Writing

  Source: www.avclub.com

• If I can entertain people and get them to open up a little bit, then they're much more conducive to any ideas I might have, whether they're about relationships or politics. The most interesting songs, I think, are the ones where the two overlap.

  Billy Bragg

  Song, Thinking, Interesting

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The idea that musicians should be talking about politics is, in some ways, quite a sixties' idea. Music no longer has a vanguard role in youth culture.

  Billy Bragg

  Musician, Culture, Youth

  Source: www.gq-magazine.co.uk

• Never trust anyone who has no doubts. And I'm not talking about scepticism either: scepticism can be a healthy thing. You can have an argument with someone who's a sceptic. When I say 'cynic', I mean someone who has given up, and they want you to give up too, so it makes them feel better about themselves.

  Billy Bragg

  Giving Up, Mean, Feel Better

  Source: thequietus.com

• If you can't see that the glass is half full, you can never be a socialist. You have to believe in the goodness of the majority of people to be a socialist. You have to believe that if the majority of people had their way, they would make a society that would be fair for everyone. If you don't believe that, and if you think that the glass is always half empty, then you're never going to have that sensibility.

  Billy Bragg

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Source: thequietus.com

• You have to recognise your responsibility to your community for your actions. Liberty doesn't mean that you are not held accountable. Without accountability, there can be no freedom. I know it seems like a paradox.

  Billy Bragg

  Mean, Responsibility, Community

  Source: thequietus.com

• Going for constant growth is not actually delivering a decent standard of living and the prospect of your children having a better life than you do. That is the key thing that politics needs to deliver: a better life for your children. That's why people are taking their lives in their hands and crossing the Mediterranean and the English Channel.

  Billy Bragg

  Children, People, Growth

  Source: thequietus.com

• Whether we like it or not, we live in a post-ideological world. That's how a Donald Trump can get through. He has no ideology at all: in that sense, he's a bit like Mussolini. I think that ultimately Trump will lose the election and in the process destroy the Republican party - but then I'm an optimist, ha ha ha! So he might not lose. He might be in charge of the largest nuclear arsenal in the world!

  Billy Bragg

  Party, Thinking, World

  Source: thequietus.com

• If we accuse Trump of being a liar, he won't just say 'I never said that' or just ignore it and go on to the next thing.

  Billy Bragg

  Liars

  Source: thequietus.com

• I'm just saying that we need to find a better way to manifest the broader society's aspirations, politically. The key to it has to be some sort of proportional representation, which allows there to be more parties.

  Billy Bragg

  Party, Just Saying, Aspiration

  Source: thequietus.com

• We've heard so much about the American dream: well, Trump is the American nightmare made flesh. All the things about 'the ugly American' that we worry about and which the Americans see in themselves, it's all of that. This is a politics of egotistical display.

  Billy Bragg

  Dream, Worry, Ugly

  Source: thequietus.com

• If we think we're a nation with great ideas, and a nation that wants to make the world a better place, let's commit ourselves and involve ourselves with our European partners.

  Billy Bragg

  Thinking, World, Great Idea

  Source: thequietus.com

• I'd like to think that in a generation or two we'll have politicians whose life experience reflects that of the people who are voting for them.

  Billy Bragg

  Thinking, People, Voting

  Source: thequietus.com

• Britain is a great country. We can more or less say what we like, and we can walk down the street without anyone trying to kill us. I know it's tough for some people, but generally we live in a caring society. We live in a great country, but we're no longer a great power. Part of the problem with some elements of the European debate is that they hanker for the days when we were a great power. Those days are gone, and they went a long time ago.

  Billy Bragg

  Country, Caring, Long

  Source: thequietus.com