Boots Riley Quotes

For all of my fortune, there are many with misfortune that need a hand.

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

As a youngster in the projects, I definitely didn't have anything. So if you get something, you want to be able to give back and help others.

There's a big difference between charity and between activism and philanthropy. They're very different things and I think, you know, everybody should find a passion or a cause that they can really get behind, but it has to be organic.

Anybody intelligent enough to realize what America is, is not going to sit around and do nothing about it. They're going to be the same way that I am. They're going to be the same way our fans are. They're going to be pissed.

Without alienation, there can be no politics.

The responsibility of philanthropy rests with us. The wealthier we are, the more powerful we get. We cannot put the entire onus on the government.

You have to feel more involved than just writing out a cheque. Charity is almost the wrong word - I think people are beginning to feel more responsible for the world.

I'm an anarchist and I do think things such as Occupy Wall Street are about getting a little closer to the solution.

Kids can learn a lot about necessities and wants by recognizing what people live without. A common routine, but one that should not be overlooked, is having a family donation to a charity for those less fortunate. Ask your kids to search for items, toys, or clothes that they no longer use and contribute those items a collection box.

Social paralysis is strong and stands firmly in the way of change on the ground level. As allies, we have to prepare ourselves to step into the fire when necessary, even - and especially - when said fire is merely a still-lit cigarette tossed carelessly onto the street.

You can look at Bad Religion, and, really, almost everything I've ever done was an exercise in creativity. I've always had a desire to challenge and question authority, and that's where the fire inside comes from. I challenged authority out of a desire to make things better, not to be nihilistic about it.

Normal life cannot sustain revolutionary attitudes for long.

Society honors its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.

You can't change the world without a certain amount of healthy willingness to break the rules.

I spend all day figuring out how to beat the machine and knock the crap out of the political power structure.

Those who sit at the feast will continue to enjoy themselves even though the veil that separates them from the world of toiling reality below has been lifted by mass revolts and critics.

Charity should begin at home, but should not stay there.

Revolutions break out when opposite parties, the rich and the poor, are equally balanced, and there is little or nothing between them.

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.

I'll continue fighting as long as these social injustices exist.

I'm not quite sure precisely when social and political activism became a visible brand of my DNA, but it seems to me that I was born into it. It is hard to be born into the experience in the world of poverty and not develop some instinct for survival and resistance to those things that oppress you.

What happens when we questions power structures? What are the consequences?

You have to respect the system. If you have a problem with the system, change the system.

The money I have earned has given me the opportunity to give back to the people who do not have the same opportunities as me.