Amiri Baraka

“The artist's role is to raise the consciousness of the people.”

“Poems are bullshit unless they are teeth.”

“Art is a weapon in the struggle of ideas, the class struggle.”

“A man is either free or he is not.”

“The Black artist is a political artist.”

“We want a black poem. And a Black World.”

“Thought is more important than art.”

“To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.”

“If you are not a revolutionary, you are an oppressor.”

“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.”

“Revolution is a process, not an event.”

“The blues is the national anthem of the black man.”

“You can't write a poem about the bomb. The bomb is the poem.”

“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.”

“Find the truth. Act on it.”

“I write for my people.”

“The new music is the new politics.”

“Agitation is a part of my work.”

“The artist must be a revolutionary. He must not be afraid to say what he thinks.”

“You can't steal nothin' from a white man, he's already stole it he owes you anything you want, even his life.”