101 Quotes by Boots Riley

"The things you have to do to be effective - like forming a union at a fast food joint or a telemarketing company - aren't going to work unless you do things like solidarity strikes. Solidarity strikes are illegal. They've been illegal since the '40s, and they were made illegal because they work."

"Art can end up answering questions or asking questions. But when it's not connected to actual movements, it doesn't ask the right questions."

"The folks that are suggesting Occupy move to electoral politics are ignoring history, ignoring what actually creates change. People get involved in electoral politics because they think there is no movement that can create change."

"There's a very thin line between rock and funk. Funk is like a dirtier blues, and so is rock. They're close cousins."

"What I wanted to do is put forth, musically, the idea that there's hope that we can change the system."

"I used to get worried about writing a love song, because everyone else is doing them, and there are already enough of them out there. But I came to realize that there's a reason for that: Love is powerful, one of the most powerful emotions there is."

"'Redistributing the wealth' - that phrase gets used so much that you almost get numb to it."

"People want things that address their everyday reality, and that goes for stuff that isn't political - with singer-songwriter music, people want things that touch them."

"My training was with some old British communists who had organized unions in the '60s and '70s. And their philosophy was, if you can't drink a pint with a man, how are you gonna get him to go on strike and risk his life?"

"There are a lot of leaders that talk about ending things like oppression - whether it's discrimination or getting a job - but the reason for all of this stuff is somebody's making a profit off our backs. That's the reason why black people were brought here in the first place. It was a profit motive."