Billy Bragg Quotes

I try and write honestly about what I see around me now.

Freedom is merely privilege extended, unless enjoyed by one and all.

I've had songs written during the Falklands war, and during the first Gulf war I got letters from soldiers saying they were listening to these songs, like Island of no return.

I'm still batting away on my politics for the Labour Party. I'm much further to the left of them than I used to be, but that's because they've moved, not me.

You can experience a download, but you can't download an experience.

War what is it good for? It's good for business.

A virtue never tested is no virtue at all.

If there is a single trait in our character that has historically set us apart from other nations, it is our determination to limit the authority of those who rule over us.

What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands.

Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is / I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses.

I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.

By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.

Don't saddle me with your ideals, and spare me all your guilt. For a poet with all the answers, has never yet been built.

Our neighbors shake their heads And take their valuables inside While my countrymen piss in the fountains To express their national pride.

My theory is this; I'm not a political songwriter. I'm an honest songwriter.

Peace, bread, work, and freedom is the best we can achieve.

I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all.

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity. Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans.

That's what I'm about -- getting engaged. Too many people don't wade in the mud with the politicians.

An isolationist America is no bloody use to anyone.

So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.

Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had.

Baptists burn more slowly.

A patriot is someone who cares what happens in their country.

The most important thing for anyone, I think, is to be engaged, whether you're an artist or a journalist is to be engaged in the process at some level.

[A]s long as you're comfortable it feels like freedom.

If you thought the army was here protecting people like yourself, I've some news for you, we're here to defend wealth.

Even with politics, stuff comes around again. Woody Guthrie would recognize America today.

If you've got a blacklist, I want to be on it.

You can be active with the activists or sleep in with the sleepers while you're waiting for the Great Leap Forwards.

I think if you're going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can't just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.

All the great political music was made at the height of political confrontations.

I'd like to think that in a generation or two we'll have politicians whose life experience reflects that of the people who are voting for them.

It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street - which Im also in favour of.

I never met a politician who didn't want to be a guitar player in a rock band. I've got the opportunity to say what I believe in.

I enjoyed so much working with the guys from Wilco, and riffing off of them, and having someone come up to me with ideas, because normally in the studio it's me who has to come up with all the ideas.

Money maketh man a tory, don't fire that assumption at me, I like toast as much as anyone but not for breakfast, dinner and tea

The idea that musicians should be talking about politics is, in some ways, quite a sixties' idea. Music no longer has a vanguard role in youth culture.

If we accuse Trump of being a liar, he won't just say 'I never said that' or just ignore it and go on to the next thing.

If we think we're a nation with great ideas, and a nation that wants to make the world a better place, let's commit ourselves and involve ourselves with our European partners.

I'm celebrating my love for you with a pint of beer and a new tattoo

A nation with their freezers full are dancing in their seats, while outside another nation is sleeping in the streets.

The evil lot who did that thing on September 11 did it because they wanted to create a war between America and Islam. And by invading Iraq, we gave them what they hoped for.

Today, rather than talk in terms of ideology or ideas like socialism, I think more important issues to discuss are things like compassion and accountability.

The temptationTo take the precious things we have apartTo see how they workMust be resisted for they never fit together

If no one seems to understandStart your own revolution and cut out the mid