About Holly Near: Holly Near is an American singer-songwriter, actor, teacher, and activist.
Poverty without a people's government looks like hopelessness, but to see poverty in organized communities is to see relief-in-progress.
It's been important to me to be a good activist, a good thinker, a good musician, a good singer, and a good entertainer. You can't do it all, but I have walked those delicate lines as best I know how.
Language is like songs, like food, like dance-it is the expression of what we think.
When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.
Leaping away from my mistakes has propelled me forward. It has great force behind it. It makes for great storytelling.
To my great surprise and pleasure, I have had dinner with most of the people living with whom I would like to have dinner.
If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.
My parents encouraged thought. You'll get through life better if you learn how to think.
I like this life. I like it when it's hard, and I like it better when it's not, but I know you don't get the sweet part without the bitter.
People love to hear the mistakes you've made.
Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?
I'm not allowing my perspective to be dictated by the dominant culture.
You just keep feeding hogwash to people, and pretty soon they'll eat it.
You can't just leave out one part; the bread won't rise if the yeast isn't there.
When we make mistakes, say, I'm blessed that I have an opportunity to learn from this.
Part of being an artist is being willing to be shocked, being willing to be surprised, being willing to be hurt.
My parents had been involved in the labor movement; if we'd grown up in the city, we would have been red-diaper babies.
To be always in a state of wonder is a kind of sensitivity that can sometimes be an extraordinary blessing and sometimes a real pain.
A lot of artists say, I'm not political. People are afraid of this word.
If I didn't think and feel the way I think and feel, I couldn't sing the way I sing. And I like singing the way I sing.
