Linton Kwesi Johnson Quotes

I wrote two poems about the '81 uprisings: 'Di Great Insohreckshan' and 'Mekin Histri.' I wrote those two poems from the perspective of those who had taken part in the Brixton riots. The tone of the poem is celebratory because I wanted to capture the mood of exhilaration felt by black people at the time.

Linton Kwesi Johnson

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Quotes to Explore

• We can't continue with a justice of vengeance. Peace will require us to accept a certain degree of impunity; it's inevitable.

  

  Ingrid Betancourt
  • Peace
  • Justice
  • Accept

• The great sin was adopting the 21st Century's Socialism, something that not even its founder, Ditrich knows exactly what it is, though he says it is under construction.

  

  Rafael Correa
  • Great
  • Sin
  • Construction

• Big Business can make laws as easily as it can break them - and with as little impunity.

  

  Ralph Chaplin
  • Business
  • Break
  • Laws

• There had always been black people in and out of our house, and from the outset I had been taught that for them life was defined by struggle and filled with injustice.

  

  Carl Bernstein
  • People
  • Life
  • House

• Reverence is fatal to literature.

  

  E. M. Forster
  • Literature
  • Reverence
  • Fatal

• For me, 'Moby-Dick' is more than the greatest American novel ever written; it is a metaphysical survival manual - the best guidebook there is for a literate man or woman facing an impenetrable unknown: the future of civilization in this storm-tossed 21st century.

  

  Nathaniel Philbrick
  • American
  • Future
  • Man

• Whatever people thought the first time they held a portable phone the size of a shoe in their hands, it was nothing like where we are now, accustomed to having all knowledge at our fingertips.

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • People
  • Time
  • Knowledge

• I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you're professional or you're not.

  

  Barbara Hepworth
  • Work
  • Day
  • Professional

• I always had to genuinely like the actors I worked with and use my enthusiasm and vision to give them confidence to push their creativity and their humor.

  

  Tamra Davis
  • Confidence
  • Vision
  • Creativity

• Every once in a while, something happens to you that makes you realise that the human race is not quite as bad as it so often seems to be.

  

  Ian Hacking
  • Bad
  • You
  • Race

• I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.

  

  G. H. Hardy
  • Art
  • Creative
  • Mathematics

• The U.N. had such lofty goals to eliminate poverty and stop war and cure diseases and help refugees - things that no one country could do.

  

  Ted Turner
  • Country
  • War
  • Help

• As an actor, you don't want to play a one-dimensional character.

  

  Olga Kurylenko
  • Character
  • Want
  • Play

• I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'

  

  Damien Hirst
  • Thinking
  • Remember
  • Artist

• On one hand, it seems strange that a country that has suffered so much from violence and war would be debating if they want peace or not. But in Colombia, a part of society is deeply connected with the war as a means of making a living.

  

  Ingrid Betancourt
  • Country
  • War
  • Society

• My dad grew up wrestling. He knew Ken Shamrock, and I didn't know who he was at the time. So, he found out that Shamrock was in a gym in Reno, and he wanted me to go try a class with him. I tried it and fell in love the first day. Ken told me that I had potential in this sport, and he's the reason I kept at it.

  

  Paige VanZant
  • Up
  • Time
  • Love

• You learn to control every aspect of your muscles, your face, your toes, your fingernails. And that is how you tell a story, through movement.

  

  Karlie Kloss
  • Control
  • Learn
  • Face

• No person is just one particular emotion.

  

  Octavia Spencer
  • Person
  • Emotion
  • Just

• Sandler's always good. Tom Hanks gave me some good advice.

  

  Jimmy Fallon
  • Good
  • Advice

• Occasionally, in the afternoons, I catch a movie, watch football, go to Sunday brunch, or visit with family and friends.

  

  Bernice King
  • Family
  • Friends
  • Movie

• I went to a really diverse and wonderful school in inner-city Pittsburgh, where all the various groups and types of people got along pretty great, and a lot of interesting stuff was going on all the time - and I still hated high school. It's just a rough, rough period in one's life.

  

  Jesse Andrews
  • People
  • Life
  • Time

• I was suffering a divorce, and I was very unhappy because my children were very young. It hit me when a woman, a fan, was chatting with me. She was pleased to meet Big Bird because her children liked him and liked the show, but she didn't know that my face was streamed with tears.

  

  Caroll Spinney
  • Children
  • She
  • Suffering

• I wrote two poems about the '81 uprisings: 'Di Great Insohreckshan' and 'Mekin Histri.' I wrote those two poems from the perspective of those who had taken part in the Brixton riots. The tone of the poem is celebratory because I wanted to capture the mood of exhilaration felt by black people at the time.

  

  Linton Kwesi Johnson
  • People
  • Time
  • Great