Top 155 Quotes & Sayings by Michael Franti
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Michael Franti.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
Not all artists have a responsibility to be socially or politically aware, but they do have a responsibility to make great art. They have to find some truth and put that in their music.
I think my soul is intact, but my methods of reaching people are completely different.
When you're in Jamaica, unless you're in a tourist spot, you don't hear Bob Marley; you mostly hear dance hall music.
Investing now in safe-guarding people by helping them to adapt to climate change, will help save money and lives while building resilience.
Music has the power to bring people together like no other art form.
Power to the peaceful!
Jamaica's a country of great dichotomy. On the one hand you have a tourist industry with great beaches and resorts, but on the other you have such great poverty and the violence that goes along with that.
'Star Wars' is mythology. It's like Greek mythology or Shakespeare. It's the story of good versus evil over a very long span of time. The storytelling is universal and timeless.
I'm a news junkie who's constantly reading newspapers and magazines. I look around and see what's happening in the world.
People underestimate the hip-hop audience and the capacity to understand politics when it's part of music.
In the '80s, Ronald Reagan inspired me to become politicized, because I grew up in that era when everything I cared about was under attack.
No life's worth more than any other, no sister worth less than any brother.
It really is a strange time we're living in, when saying 'Don't kill people' is considered a radical point of view.
My mother, she made sure all of us were treated the same and had the same opportunity to grow and develop, so that when we left the house, we could fly on our own. And she also knew when we got out into the world, we'd treat others that we came across with that same treatment and respect.
The rap community has been singled out as more homophobic than other groups, but I don't think that's right. It's homophobic, all right, but no more so than the heavy-metal community or the Hollywood community or any other community.
Through music I either tame my demons or unleash them and allow them to be what they are. I don't want the music to be about provocation, I want the music to bring you to a place where you feel at home.
My mother birthed three children and she adopted myself and another African-American son. My adoptive parents were Finnish. I grew up in a white picket neighborhood.
I'm not an idealist. I know we're not going to be living in a world that's peace and love all the time. But we can live in a world where we kill each other a lot less.
The way the music comes to you starts to affect how you listen to music. When you're a kid, it's 'Does it rock? Does it make me feel good? Does it make me tap my feet? Does it make me go to sleep?'
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just to stay human.
Bonnaroo has kind of become the granddaddy of all American festivals. The thing I love about it most is that it wasn't born out of picking the top ten bands off the Billboard chart and creating a festival around it.
I really believe that, as an artist, my opportunity to help to bring about awakening is one that should come from a personal process that someone has, and not from me telling somebody that this is the way it is.
I don't know if music can change the world overnight but I know that music can help someone make it through a difficult night.
You learn a lot when you're barefoot. The first thing is every step you take is different.
People worry that gas prices are high and how they are affecting their pocket book. But they want to know about renewable energy. People are really starting to question things, and that's made people look to the future in a positive way.
Every single soul is a poem.
To sit back and say, 'Oh, we're going to let the government do whatever they want, right or wrong,' is giving up.
Everyone deserves music.
I went to Iraq because I wanted to see what one year of occupation had done to Iraqi society, and I went to the West Bank and Gaza Strip because I wanted to see what three generations of occupation had done to Palestinian society. I found a lot more hopelessness and despair in Palestine.
I hope I inspire people to dream bigger than what they are living, but a dream within their reach.
Today we are in a war against war - music is our power.
When I first started out, I thought it was enough to make an angry song that pointed out the problems of the world.
I'm always trying to find optimistic ways to express myself.
During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the United States, I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want the stabilization of the economy, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come.
Playing on the streets of Iraq, or in Israel or the Gaza strip, I'd sing angry protest songs against war. People would say, 'Make us clap, make us dance, and laugh and sing.' It really made me think about the importance of happy music.
All my songs are different, but from the overall experience, I want people to sense that they can overcome and move through difficult times and find strength in my music. Maybe it's a song that makes them cry and move through something else.
San Francisco has always been a haven for misfits and weirdos. I'm both of those, which is why I came here.
The music industry has been hijacked by corporate interests, but the way music affects people and resonates with them hasn't changed.
The U.S. has historically been the world's largest contributor to climate change.
After a show, I'll get the 16-year-old white kid whose lip is pierced, his head is shaved and his parents hate him, and the young gangster from the screwed-up 'hood, and they say that now they realize there's someone out there who thinks like they do.
My favorite band of all time is The Clash. The thing I love about The Clash is they started out as guys who could barely play three chords. They dabbled in reggae, punk, rap, jazz. They came to a sound that could only be defined as The Clash. It was impossible to say what it was. I admire them for that.
The more places I go to, the more I realize I understand so little about the world.
My music is part of the quest I have to find new ways of telling stories, and also, I want to inspire people.
Music is sunshine. Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.
It doesn't matter if you're black, white, gay, straight, come from different countries, different language... every single person is significant and is meaningful.
All the freaky people make the beauty of the world.
If we do not change our negative habits toward climate change, we can count on worldwide disruptions in food production, resulting in mass migration, refugee crises and increased conflict over scarce natural resources like water and farm land. This is a recipe for major security problems.
I've always found that the poorer the places that I go, the more smiles I see, and the more happiness I see.
History shows that Americans believe in doing the right thing.
You get everything you could have ever wished for if you're willing to give that eternal bliss away to somebody else, to give it back.
Collectively, we activists are essential to advancing U.S. policy to help empower marginalized people to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty for good.
The corporate media is there to push the agenda of the sponsors, and many of those sponsors are weapons manufacturers. So it stands to reason that you won't get a diversity of opinions on television.
The world can't have a global solution to climate change with U.S. action alone; and the world can't have a global solution without U.S. action.
There are so many things to be worried about, and I wanted to make a record that people could put on, and it would lift them up the way the sun did for me each day.
Johnny Cash was a rebel, not only just in the musical sense, but he was somebody who was for the people, and an advocate for labor, for workers, for prisoners, people who have been trapped by the criminal justice system.
We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace.
I drive a hybrid. It's a Ford Escape. That's my only car.
We have a saying in my house, my kids and my girlfriend. We say, 'Be your best for the greater good, and rock out wherever you are.'
My parents said sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you. But I always felt a sense of exhilaration after a fight; it was the names that really hurt me.
I went to the University of San Francisco on an athletic scholarship. I didn't study in high school. I was just there to get by and to play basketball. But a funny thing happened to me when I got to college. I got challenged by the work and the professors.
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