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
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We can't continue with a justice of vengeance. Peace will require us to accept a certain degree of impunity; it's inevitable.
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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.
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Big Business can make laws as easily as it can break them - and with as little impunity.
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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.
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Reverence is fatal to literature.
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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.
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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.
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I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you're professional or you're not.
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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.
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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.
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I am interested in mathematics only as a creative art.
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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.
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As an actor, you don't want to play a one-dimensional character.
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I had a passport where I wrote 'artist' under 'occupation' and I remember thinking, 'That's it, it's proved!'
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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.
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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.
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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.
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No person is just one particular emotion.
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People love to be nice, but you must give them the chance.
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I think you’re going to find Marcus Aurelius particularly useful.’ ‘For what?’ I asked. Nightingale hesitated. ‘Quoting, mainly,’ he said. ‘And thus maintaining an air of erudition and authority.
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I think instead writers and publishers and readers need to go to the places where people are, and make the argument that there is great value to the quiet, contemplative process of reading a novel, that reading great books carefully offers pleasures and consolations that no iPad app ever can.
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I've found a letter that was written to me from a girl who was getting married. And she wanted to know the secret of a happy marriage. I said - and I wrote back and said something to the effect that I couldn't - I had no magic formula. And I never sat down and thought about it, but everything just fell into place with Ronnie and me.
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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.
