Gil Scott-Heron famous quotes

You will not be able to stay home, brother./You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out./You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,/Skip out for beer during commercials,/Because the revolution will not be televised.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Brother #Home #Beer

Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

A good poet feels what his community feels. Like if you stub your toe, the rest of your body hurts.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Hurt #Community #Toes

I don't mind being criticized. I enjoy being criticized personally, not by rumor.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Mind #Rumor #Enjoy

Music has the power to make me feel good like nothing else does. It gives me some peace for a while. Takes me back to who I really am.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Giving #Feel Good #Doe

I am a black man dedicated to expression; expression of the joy and pride of blackness. I consider myself neither poet, composer, or musician. These are merely tools used by sensitive men to carve out a piece of beauty or truth that they hope may lead to peace and salvation.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Pride #Men #Expression

The revolution will be no re-run brothers, The revolution will be live.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Running #Brother #Revolution

I've always had questions about what it meant to be a protester, to be in the minority. Are the people who are trying to find peace, who are trying to have the Constitution apply to everybody, are they really the radicals? We're not protesting from the outside. We're inside.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#People #Trying #Minorities

All the dreams you show up in are not your own.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Dream #Shows

Everything that's bad for you catches on too quickly in America, because that's the easiest thing to get people to invest in, the pursuits that are easy and destructive, the ones that bring out the least positive aspects of people.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#America #People #Easy

Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom - and lakes die.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Nature #Men #Lakes

Colour is not the issue in America; class is.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Class #America #Issues

You have to learn and keep learning.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Keep Learning

The revolution that takes place in your head, nobody will ever see that.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Revolution

If we meet somebody who has never made a mistake, lets help them start a religion. Until then, were just going to meet other humans and help to make each other better.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Mistake #Helping #Made

I was born in Chicago, but I was raised in a town called Jackson, Tennessee. And a lot of these changes that were necessary and talked about it as important have been made, like, people go to school where they want to go. They work for equal pay, they work for - they can go school and have an equal shot at a job.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Jobs #School #Equal Pay

The first revolution is when you change your mind
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Mind #Firsts #Revolution

The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people's faces, because that's the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Mirrors #Expression #People

You know what has made me the happiest I've ever been? Seeing my son and daughter graduate from college. More than wanting them to be educated, I wanted them to be nice people. To see that they have become both is just a wonderful thing.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Daughter #Mother #Nice

The way you get to know yourself is by the expression on other people's faces.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Expression #People #Way

My songs were always about the tone of voice rather than the words.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Song #Voice #Tone

Schedule? I have no schedule. There is no hurry. I work when I want to.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Schedules #Want

You should be able to do anything you can afford as an adult.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Adults #Able #Should

I was a better writer when I was teaching. I was constantly going over the basics and constantly reminding myself, as I reminded my students, what made a good story, a good poem.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Teaching #Stories #Students

If someone comes to you and asks for help, and you can help them, you're supposed to help them. Why wouldn't you? You have been put in the position somehow to be able to help this person.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Able #Helping #Position

I cannot afford to watch Fox News.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Watches #News #Fox News

As for money - when I have it, it's great. When I don't, I go get some. I've been a dishwasher, a gardener, a cleaner.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Dishwashers #Gardener #Cleaners

I tour more than I need to, more than is good for you. But it's my favorite part of music. I much prefer it to studio work.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Needs #My Favorite

I learnt early on that your audience take the songs in the way they want to rather than the way you might want them too.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Song #Want #Might

I am honestly not sure how capable I am of love. And I'm not sure why.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Not Sure #Honestly #Capable

The revolution will not be televised.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Interesting #Revolution

Womenfolk raised me and I was full-grown before I knew I came from a broken home
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Home #Broken #Raised

Every once in a while, you live long enough to get the respect that people didn't want to give while you were trying to become a senior citizen.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Senior #Long #People

Our accomplishments show what kind of people we are.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#People #Accomplishment #Kind

You never cared enough to be Black
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Black #Enough

I was one of the first three black students to go to an all-white school in Tennessee.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#School #White #Black

Every show that sells out is like a hero's welcome for me.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Hero #Welcome #Shows

I was a piano player before I was a poet.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Player #Piano #Poet

If you aren't having no fun, die, because you're running a worthless program, far as I'm concerned.
-- Gil Scott-Heron

#Running #Fun #Program