Holly Near Quotes
"A lot of artists say, I'm not political. People are afraid of this word."
- Holly Near
(Related: People, Artists, Word)
"I don't believe in nirvana. If nirvana was handed to us on a silver platter, this would be the first day of our struggle to keep it."
- Holly Near
(Related: Day, First, Struggle)
"I like this life. I like it when it's hard, and I like it better when it's not, but I know you don't get the sweet part without the bitter."
- Holly Near
(Related: Life)
"I'm not allowing my perspective to be dictated by the dominant culture."
- Holly Near
(Related: Culture, Perspective)
"If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum."
- Holly Near
(Related: Intelligence, Wisdom, Mistakes)
"It's been important to me to be a good activist, a good thinker, a good musician, a good singer, and a good entertainer. You can't do it all, but I have walked those delicate lines as best I know how."
- Holly Near
"Language is like songs, like food, like dance-it is the expression of what we think."
- Holly Near
(Related: Food, Dance, Expression, Language, Songs)
"Leaping away from my mistakes has propelled me forward. It has great force behind it. It makes for great storytelling."
- Holly Near
(Related: Force, Mistakes)
"Music can be used against us as much as it can be used for us. Muzak can put a whole nation to sleep, whereas a lullaby is intended to put a child to sleep in a sweet way."
- Holly Near
(Related: Music, Nation, Sleep)
"My creativity and my political work are linked. I don't do this work out of guilt or out of responsibility."
- Holly Near
(Related: Work, Creativity, Guilt, Responsibility)
"My parents encouraged thought. You'll get through life better if you learn how to think."
- Holly Near
(Related: Life, Thought, Parents)
"My parents had been involved in the labor movement; if we'd grown up in the city, we would have been red-diaper babies."
- Holly Near
(Related: Babies, Labor, Parents)
"If I didn't think and feel the way I think and feel, I couldn't sing the way I sing. And I like singing the way I sing."
- Holly Near
(Related: Singing)
"To come to a concert and hear a lot of songs from a female perspective should not make men say, 'Oh well, that's for women'."
- Holly Near
(Related: Men, Women, Perspective, Songs)
"You can't just leave out one part; the bread won't rise if the yeast isn't there."
- Holly Near
"Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?"
- Holly Near
(Related: People, Killing, Wrong)
"White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people."
- Holly Near
(Related: Men, People, Journey)
"When we make mistakes, say, I'm blessed that I have an opportunity to learn from this."
- Holly Near
(Related: Opportunity, Mistakes)
"When the students were killed at Kent State, the cast voted to do a demonstration from the stage, and I abstained."
- Holly Near
(Related: State, Students)
"When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs."
- Holly Near
(Related: Hope, Songs)
"You just keep feeding hogwash to people, and pretty soon they'll eat it."
- Holly Near
(Related: People, Pretty)
"To be always in a state of wonder is a kind of sensitivity that can sometimes be an extraordinary blessing and sometimes a real pain."
- Holly Near
(Related: Pain, Sensitivity, State, Wonder)
"The women's movement completely changed attitudes all over the world in ways we'll never be able to count."
- Holly Near
(Related: Women, World)
"The war on drugs is a war against the communities."
- Holly Near
(Related: War, Drugs)
"People love to hear the mistakes you've made."
- Holly Near
(Related: Love, People, Mistakes)
"Part of keeping space open is not to try to choose a form - to spend more time thinking about content, and let form take care of itself."
- Holly Near
(Related: Time, Care, Content, Open, Space, Thinking)
"Part of being an artist is being willing to be shocked, being willing to be surprised, being willing to be hurt."
- Holly Near
(Related: Artist, Being, Hurt)
"Once women are not excluded, I don't think any of us will give a damn what pronouns are used. That wasn't the point."
- Holly Near
(Related: Women, Will)
"We who are interested in relative truth have to keep digging for it and not let ourselves be sucked under."
- Holly Near
(Related: Truth)
"To my great surprise and pleasure, I have had dinner with most of the people living with whom I would like to have dinner."
- Holly Near
(Related: People, Living, Pleasure)