Top 40 Holly Near Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?”

— Holly Near

2. “If you have the guts to keep making mistakes, your wisdom and intelligence leap forward with huge momentum.”

— Holly Near

3. “Time has passed through me and become a song.”

— Holly Near

4. “The greatest warriors are the ones who fight for peace.”

— Holly Near

5. “A lot of artists say, I’m not political. People are afraid of this word.”

— Holly Near

6. “The war on drugs is a war against the communities.”

— Holly Near

7. “In my life, the stories I have heard from my family, my friends, my community, and from willing strangers all over the world have been the true source of my education.”

— Holly Near

8. “You can’t just leave out one part; the bread won’t rise if the yeast isn’t there.”

— Holly Near

9. “All my life I have gone out on a limb, but I have turned the limb into a bridge, and there is cool, clear water flowing under.”

— Holly Near

10. “Something happens to me when I witness someone’s courage. They may not know I’m watching and I might not let them know. But something happens to me that will last me for a lifetime. To fill me when I’m empty, and rock me when I’m low.”

— Holly Near

11. “Poverty without a people’s government looks like hopelessness, but to see poverty in organized communities is to see relief-in-progress.”

— Holly Near

12. “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.”

— Holly Near

13. “I don’t believe in nirvana. If nirvana was handed to us on a silver platter, this would be the first day of our struggle to keep it.”

— Holly Near

14. “It doesn’t take long to sum up the major theses of most popular music: he loves me; he left me; I need him; I needed him, but now I need his best friend. Rather limited scope.”

— Holly Near

15. “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.”

— Holly Near

16. “I am selfish. I reach for the world I want to live in. And I believe in leaving our best we can do to our children.”

— Holly Near

17. “Language is like songs, like food, like dance-it is the expression of what we think.”

— Holly Near

18. “My parents encouraged thought. You’ll get through life better if you learn how to think.”

— Holly Near

19. “Peace can start with just one heart.”

— Holly Near

20. “I’m not allowing my perspective to be dictated by the dominant culture.”

— Holly Near

21. “You can kill a man but not a song when it’s sung the whole world ’round.”

— Holly Near

22. “To my great surprise and pleasure, I have had dinner with most of the people living with whom I would like to have dinner.”

— Holly Near

23. “Leaping away from my mistakes has propelled me forward. It has great force behind it. It makes for great storytelling.”

— Holly Near

24. “White middle- and upper-class men have a longer journey to go than many people.”

— Holly Near

25. “The women’s movement completely changed attitudes all over the world in ways we’ll never be able to count.”

— Holly Near

26. “Once women are not excluded, I don’t think any of us will give a damn what pronouns are used. That wasn’t the point.”

— Holly Near

27. “You just keep feeding hogwash to people, and pretty soon they’ll eat it.”

— Holly Near

28. “Music can be used against us as much as it can be used for us. Muzak can put a whole nation to sleep, whereas a lullaby is intended to put a child to sleep in a sweet way.”

— Holly Near

29. “We who are interested in relative truth have to keep digging for it and not let ourselves be sucked under.”

— Holly Near

30. “People love to hear the mistakes you’ve made.”

— Holly Near

31. “When we make mistakes, say, I’m blessed that I have an opportunity to learn from this.”

— Holly Near

32. “Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible. It requires training as well as magic.”

— Holly Near

33. “Often thoughts are given to me with the sole purpose of giving them away.”

— Holly Near

34. “Part of keeping space open is not to try to choose a form – to spend more time thinking about content, and let form take care of itself.”

— Holly Near

35. “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.”

— Holly Near

36. “When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they’ll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.”

— Holly Near

37. “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.”

— Holly Near

38. “Whenever new ideas emerge, songs soon follow, and before long the songs are leading.”

— Holly Near

39. “Part of being an artist is being willing to be shocked, being willing to be surprised, being willing to be hurt.”

— Holly Near

40. “My creativity and my political work are linked. I don’t do this work out of guilt or out of responsibility.”

— Holly Near

41. “It is essential that men start being interested in and excited by how women think.”

— Holly Near