Quotes from Michael Franti

During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the United States, I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want the stabilization of the economy, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come.

My greatest sense of accomplishment has come from having two amazing sons, but it's also a paradox in that the times when I felt like the biggest failure have been times when I felt like, as a parent, I wasn't making the right decisions or succeeding in the way that I should.

Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood.

It's a really personal thing for me to write a song.

Music was a central part of my childhood because my mother played organ and piano in the church, and that meant all us kids had to be in the church choir.

My mother birthed three children and she adopted myself and another African-American son. My adoptive parents were Finnish. I grew up in a white picket neighborhood.

Playing on the streets of Iraq, or in Israel or the Gaza strip, I'd sing angry protest songs against war. People would say, 'Make us clap, make us dance, and laugh and sing.' It really made me think about the importance of happy music.

You say you're a Christian, Cause God made you, You say you're a Muslim, Cause God made you, You say you're a Hindu and the next man a Jew, Then we all kill each other, Cause God told us to? Nah!..

The music industry has been hijacked by corporate interests, but the way music affects people and resonates with them hasn't changed.

I don't know if music can change the world overnight but I know that music can help someone make it through a difficult night.

Music is sunshine. Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.

Music is also one of the great heart openers. Sometimes, you hear the lyrics of a song and you dance, laugh, smile, or perhaps even cry.

It's that transformative nature of love and music and yoga that really inspires me.

We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace.

I'm not an idealist. I know we're not going to be living in a world that's peace and love all the time. But we can live in a world where we kill each other a lot less.

When I first started, my songs were the politics of anger. As I got older and hopefully wiser, I wanted to be part of the politics of answers.

I believe that through positive thoughts, speech, action and attitudes, we change things for the better.

Every single soul is a poem, written on the back of God's hand

We don't have to be good, you know? No one's telling us that we have to do good things, but we do them because we know it makes other people feel good and it makes us feel good.

When I first started out, I thought it was enough to make an angry song that pointed out the problems of the world.

Power to the peaceful!

Today we are in a war against war - music is our power.

The corporate media is there to push the agenda of the sponsors, and many of those sponsors are weapons manufacturers. So it stands to reason that you won't get a diversity of opinions on television.

When someone can't afford to wear shoes, it's not just about them not having shoes on that day. It's about a cycle of poverty that exists within their community.