Quotes by Holly Near

• It is essential that men start being interested in and excited by how women think.
• A lot of artists say, I'm not political. People are afraid of this 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.
• 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.
• I'm not allowing my perspective to be dictated by the dominant culture.
• If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.
• 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.
• Language is like songs, like food, like dance-it is the expression of what we think.
• Leaping away from my mistakes has propelled me forward. It has great force behind it. It makes for great storytelling.
• 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.
• My creativity and my political work are linked. I don't do this work out of guilt or out of responsibility.
• My parents encouraged thought. You'll get through life better if you learn how to think.
• My parents had been involved in the labor movement; if we'd grown up in the city, we would have been red-diaper babies.
• 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.
• 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'.
• You can't just leave out one part; the bread won't rise if the yeast isn't there.
• Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?
• White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people.
• When we make mistakes, say, I'm blessed that I have an opportunity to learn from this.
• When the students were killed at Kent State, the cast voted to do a demonstration from the stage, and I abstained.
• When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.
• You just keep feeding hogwash to people, and pretty soon they'll eat it.
• 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.
• The women's movement completely changed attitudes all over the world in ways we'll never be able to count.
• The war on drugs is a war against the communities.
• People love to hear the mistakes you've made.
• 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.
• Part of being an artist is being willing to be shocked, being willing to be surprised, being willing to be 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.
• We who are interested in relative truth have to keep digging for it and not let ourselves be sucked under.
• To my great surprise and pleasure, I have had dinner with most of the people living with whom I would like to have dinner.