Ellen Willis Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“I believe that body and spirit are not really separate, though it often seems that way. I believe that redemption is never impossible and always equivocal. But I guess that I just don't know.”

“I was a 'Big Brother' fan. I thought they were better musicians than their detractors claimed, but more to the point, technical accomplishment was not something I cared about.”

“My education was dominated by modernist thinkers and artists who taught me that the supreme imperative was courage to face the awful truth, to scorn the soft-minded optimism of religious and secular romantics as well as the corrupt optimism of governments, advertisers, and mechanistic or manipulative revolutionaries.”

“I can't keep myself from playing roles. The emotionless decadent, looking for diversion from boredom, is a favorite.”

“The artificial separation of politics and culture is nowhere more pronounced than in the discourse of foreign policy and international affairs.”

“To imagine that trauma casts out fantasy is a dangerous mistake.”

“What cultural revolutionaries do not seem to grasp is that, far from being a grass-roots art form that has been taken over by businessmen, rock itself comes from the commercial exploitation of the blues.”