I always had the intuition, even as a little child, that I was called for a big project.
I think that any time anybody gets rid of oppression, intervention, exploitation, cruelty - that's positive.
I couldn't see how we could seriously struggle without having a strong sense of collectivity, without being responsible FOR each other and TO each other.
People come telling the truth. When I ask how thing are in the States, they don't give me the okeydoke. They say, "Honey, things are hard. " It reminds me I have to keep struggling.
The people who are running this planet are insane - they are literally destroying it. I don't know where they think they're gonna drink water, breathe air.
A lot of contemporary American culture makes its way to this county. Cuba is not some gray, isolated backwater. This is a happening place.
People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.
I don’t shoot people with Korans. I’d like to, but I don’t.
A lot of people hate heroes. I was criticized for portraying people who are brave, honest, loving, intelligent. That was called weak and sentimental. People who dismiss all real emotion as sentimentality are cowards. They’re afraid to commit themselves, and so they remain ‘cool’ for the rest of their lives, until they’re dead—then they’re really cool.
Maybe my records might make the next Ja Rule or Jay-Z want to rap.
Poetry is supposed to be musical. But people don't understand prose. They're so used to reading journalism - clunky, functional sentences that convey factual information - facts, more than just the surfaces of things.