Quotes from Billy Bragg

Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.

I never met a politician who didn't want to be a guitar player in a rock band. I've got the opportunity to say what I believe in.

I've had songs written during the Falklands war, and during the first Gulf war I got letters from soldiers saying they were listening to these songs, like Island of no return.

War what is it good for? It's good for business.

The most important thing for anyone, I think, is to be engaged, whether you're an artist or a journalist is to be engaged in the process at some level.

My upbringing was very straightforward suburban working class upbringing.

I think if you're going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can't just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.

I enjoyed so much working with the guys from Wilco, and riffing off of them, and having someone come up to me with ideas, because normally in the studio it's me who has to come up with all the ideas.

It's not a very popular subject amongst my audience, who are by nature more internationalist, but I don't choose what to write about, I don't choose my subjects, they kind of choose me.

I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.

In that sense, I became politicized because the people in the coal mining villages who were involved in the struggle knew why they were there. But they couldn't understand why some pop star from London would want to be there.

You can experience a download, but you can't download an experience.

What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands.

[A]s long as you're comfortable it feels like freedom.