Luis Bunuel Quotes

What most of us must be involved in--whether we teach or write, make films, write films, direct films, play music, act, whatever we do--has to not only make people feel good and inspired and at one with other people around them, but also has to educate a new generation to do this very modest thing: change the world.

If you are creative, you must be dissident.

Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.

Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.

Art is a revolt against fate. All art is a revolt against man's fate.

I like art. It's another way to rebel.

Why I talk so seriously about art is that art is the only thing that helps people stay alive, and it is the only thing that has allowed people to create joy in this insane, suppressive universe. And art is the only thing that they can't get rid of. They've tried, but ultimately they can't stamp it out.

Revolution is Tupac showing a young artist that he can scribble in a notebook and it's worth a lot.

I was inherently slightly more bitter or cynical and that kept me from going to the commercial formulaic crowd. Also, I went to an art college and I did my foundation in art.

No one told us what to wear, what to write, what to play. When they tried to, we shot 'em down easily.

Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world.

As a human being, I am a citizen, but as an artist, I am asocial.

Whenever I become discouraged (which is on alternate Tuesdays, between three and four) I lift my spirits by remembering: The artists are on our side! I mean those poets and painters, singers and musicians, novelists and playwrights who speak to the world in a way that is impervious to assault because they wage the battle for justice in a sphere which is unreachable by the dullness of ordinary political discourse.

The artist has tremendous power to change the world.

In every society, the artists will be the ones who set themselves up as contrary to whatever the society expects.

I'm trying to escape by forming my own kind of world. Basically, I'm trying to encourage others to do the same.

The arts can bring the heart to the aid of the head, the personal to the political.

On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.

The Beatles defined their own sense of values and honor. They took stances without ever being politically correct. And they did it all with incredible humor... I honestly think that there are certain things in life that help people understand themselves. I think the Beatles are one of those things. They resonate the journey of true selfhood, really.

Burmese authors and artists can play the role that artists everywhere play. They help to mold the outlook of a society - not the whole outlook and they are not the only ones to mold the outlook of society, but they have an important role to play there. And I think if they take up this role seriously and link it to the kind of changes were wish to bring about in our country they could be a tremendous help.

I feel that America is essentially against the artist, that the enemy of America is the artist, because he stands for individuality and creativeness, and that's un-American somehow.

Rap is rock 'n' roll. Rock is when you push the buttons in the system; when you say, I'm not going along with what you're saying. That's rock, whether it's done with guitars, or it's done with just beats.

Musicians have the power to influence people and along with movie makers, they can reach and influence more people than any group of people, more than scientists and certainly more than politicians.

I paint with my back to the world