Drawing creates its own kind of private space. Coupled with certain interests that I want to speak to in my art, it's really kind of a safe haven for me. Creating art is not only a comfort zone, but also a way of speaking to my passions.
When I was a child, for a public/civil servant to be caught in corrupt practices, that individual will be a pariah. He will be a complete reject of the society; he/she could not raise his or her voice to speak in the public. So what happened between that time and now? That time when a public officer, prison or customs officer caught in corruption hides his face in shame amongst his peers, he just couldn't come out publicly. Today, when they come back, they get chieftaincy titles, they are received in grand style, cows are killed, they ride on white horses.
I begin to feel like I was in the last generation of Americans who took a civics class. I begin to feel like most Americans don't understand the First Amendment, don't understand the idea of freedom of speech, and don't understand that it's the responsibility of the citizen to speak out.
I always tell my students the same thing. And that's to live life, and to read very voraciously without any definite program. To travel, to meet people, to talk to people, to listen very carefully, and not interrupt, but listen to their own grandparents speak of their families.
The things I really cared about - poverty, the Great Society, civil rights - were all being drained away by the Vietnam War. The line that keeps running through my mind is the line I never spoke: "I can't speak for a war that I believe is immoral."
I think it's important to encourage young people to tell their own stories and to speak openly about their own experiences with the criminal justice system and the experiences of their family. We need to ensure that the classroom environment is a supportive one so that the shame and stigma can be dispelled.
Music is the universal language, it evokes an emotion in all of us. That, we can all look at each other and we may not speak the same language, but that song or that melody can make us feel the same thing. And we can look at each other and agree and be like, "that did something for us". It makes us feel unified and connected.
I ended up becoming a playwright because you can be grammatically incorrect: people speaking in bad poetry or people attempting to speak well and sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing. The whole imperfection of it suddenly felt freeing to me.
If someone can learn from my experiences, grow from them and take it to the next level or to learn what not to do, that's almost a civil responsibility for your peers but also for those that follow you, support you and don't get a chance to come behind the curtain so to speak.
When you speak a foreign language, you become someone else. If you aren't used to speaking a language, and you start speaking it again, for the first few sentences you'll find yourself in very strange shape, because you're still the person who was speaking the first language. But if you keep speaking that language, you will become the person who corresponds to it.
One thing I do is (and I realize this might sound nuts), every month or so, I try to take like an Etch-a-sketch [so to speak], and I clear my faith. I go to zero, clear the deck. And I start adding things back to my faith, one at a time. What would be the first thing I'd add back? Jesus. It sounds a little bit like a Sunday school answer, but that's what I do. Then what's the next thing? And I'd say, well, loving people. And then the next.
America's all about the various voices, right? When we all speak with a common voice we verge on fascism, which is militaristic, and fundamentally anti-American.
To assert that we desire to bring about revolution in other countries, by interfering with their lives, is to speak of something which does not exist and which we never preach.
When you are out of favor, so to speak, it's not just the reviewers. It's the editors, the publishers, they don't want you anymore, you're just gone and you've been written out of history as effectively as the old Stalinists would write someone else out, take their photograph out of a book.
I think the problem for the future generations is a lot of people ain't takin' the time to look for galvanizing artists and give them their voice, so therefore for their voice to be heard, they gotta bang more pots on the ceiling, so to speak; they gotta do crazy things just to get recognized. I just feel that whenever you don't give a generation some kind of voice, then expect side effects.
I've stood in long lines, in the rain and under the sun, just to buy a pack of butter or a box of paper napkins. I've seen mothers running after the corpses of their martyred sons, oblivious to whether their headscarves or their chadors or their stockings and shoes were slipping off or not. I won't say any more. In the light of all this, how did you expect my poetry to be joyful or, as in my recent poem, to speak of love? Even so, more than half of my poetry is joyful and these are the products of the moments when I've felt happy.
I was born under Communism. I know what it's like to live in a system where you can't speak, you have to whisper. Where the state is so pervasive and so intrusive.
Donald Trump is dangerous. The truth is that the bigotry and hatred that he speaks have real consequences in people's lives.
We have people there who do have substantial wisdom and substantial experience. And if they were confident enough to express their own views, that they wouldn't be bushwhacked by the party for casting a single vote like Bob Bennett was or like I was, they'd be willing to speak up and they'd be willing to speak their consciences and put their ideas on the line. But right now, there is timidity, there is fear that if they do that a single votes gonna cost them their job and they're not willing to make that kind of a sacrifice and they're not enough with the people.
A $200 million contract just got awarded to develop software to provide the Department of Defense with all these sock puppets who have fake Twitter and Facebook accounts. Why not create ten fake Libyan Twitter users and then get one journalist to follow them. But the problem is, of course, it corrupts the entire process. One of the caveats is that anything they write is going to be in a foreign language so it won't affect Americans. But that doesn't make any sense because: A) it can be translated pretty easily, and B) Americans also speak other languages.
When I go to American cities and speak to American audiences about Karachi, I am able to draw their own wonder and consternation about the cities they live in as an entry point to this other faraway, instant city.
I can't speak for everybody, but sometimes, people get in this showbiz game and they get the money, but then they forget why they got in the game in the first place. I don't even look at it as fame, I just look at it as me being me, and me going out here everyday and being productive, because I am the product, and I'm selling myself. I'm selling my ambition and my integrity and my adversity, and I'd just like to be that.
That's why I like to read a lot. That's why I try to keep up on current events, what's going on in the world with the elections and the politicians and business people, because I feel like it's my duty to spread that. I feel like it's my duty to speak on that even if I'm never asked, because I'm representing the people. I don't want to be in a position where I have no knowledge.
I can't speak to being a force for change, but I take it and wear it proudly. I'll never deny it or be one of those people who are like, "I'm just trying to do my best..." No! I'm all about total world domination.
To be a well-rounded individual and to know how to speak to both audiences of intellect and emotion means something to me. Not trying to be super woman, but I'd like to sit at both tables and on both platforms.
Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Every day we present the best quotes! Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends
or simply: