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.
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.
-
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.
-
Big Business can make laws as easily as it can break them - and with as little impunity.
-
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.
-
Reverence is fatal to literature.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you're professional or you're not.
-
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.
-
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.
-
I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.
-
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.
-
As an actor, you don't want to play a one-dimensional character.
-
I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'
-
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.
-
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.
-
No person is just one particular emotion.
-
Managers are the most creative people in the world.
-
The human crisis is always a crisis of understanding: what we genuinely understand we can do.
-
I like to be goofy. I like to make people laugh. I like to have a good time as much as possible.
-
Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is a nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.
-
I've always been passionate about fashion.
-
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.
