At some point in your life you have to engage with the fact that you are part of a society.
BILLY BRAGGAt some point in your life you have to engage with the fact that you are part of a society.
BILLY BRAGGPeace, bread, work, and freedom is the best we can achieve.
BILLY BRAGGWhether we like it or not, we live in a post-ideological world. That’s how a Donald Trump can get through. He has no ideology at all: in that sense, he’s a bit like Mussolini.
BILLY BRAGGThat’s what I’m about — getting engaged. Too many people don’t wade in the mud with the politicians.
BILLY BRAGGI think that ultimately Trump will lose the election and in the process destroy the Republican party – but then I’m an optimist, ha ha ha! So he might not lose. He might be in charge of the largest nuclear arsenal in the world!
BILLY BRAGGWe’ve heard so much about the American dream: well, Trump is the American nightmare made flesh.
BILLY BRAGGDon’t saddle me with your ideals, and spare me all your guilt. For a poet with all the answers, has never yet been built.
BILLY BRAGGYou can have an argument with someone who’s a sceptic. When I say ‘cynic’, I mean someone who has given up, and they want you to give up too, so it makes them feel better about themselves.
BILLY BRAGGAll the things about ‘the ugly American’ that we worry about and which the Americans see in themselves, it’s all of that. This is a politics of egotistical display.
BILLY BRAGGWhat happened on September 11 wasn’t the first act of war, it was the most unspeakable act of murder and terrorism. But it was construed by a very small group of people – there is no army out there in the dark waiting to take over America.
BILLY BRAGGMixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is / I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses.
BILLY BRAGGI’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.
BILLY BRAGGWere it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.
BILLY BRAGGI 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.
BILLY BRAGGI’m just saying that we need to find a better way to manifest the broader society’s aspirations, politically.
BILLY BRAGGJust because you’re gay, I won’t turn you away. If you stick around, I’m sure we can find some common ground.
BILLY BRAGG