Linton Kwesi Johnson's Quotes

I have never, ever sought validation from the arbiters of British poetic taste.

Once you have a disease like cancer, you look at life a bit differently. Some things that were important no longer seem as important as they were.

The modern stuff, I can take it or leave it. I like its danceability, but the DJs talk a lot of nonsense.

The more I read my poems, the more I find out about them. I still read them with the same passion I felt when I wrote them as a young man.

Younger people are discovering my work, even though my reggae is not like theirs.

At the end of the day, life's about realising one's human potential. I don't know if I've realised mine, but I've certainly gone a long way towards realising some goals and some dreams.

Back in those early days when I began my apprenticeship as a poet, I also tried to voice our anger, spirit of defiance and resistance in a Jamaican poetic idiom.

I am often asked why I started to write poetry. The answer is that my motivation sprang from a visceral need to creatively articulate the experiences of the black youth of my generation, coming of age in a racist society.

I don't go to see bands any more because I've got tinnitus, so I have to avoid loud music. You get used to it, but when it's quiet you hear a constant ringing.

I wrote two poems about the '81 uprisings: 'Di Great Insohreckshan' and 'Mekin Histri.' I wrote those two poems from the perspective of those who had taken part in the Brixton riots. The tone of the poem is celebratory because I wanted to capture the mood of exhilaration felt by black people at the time.

I do get angry some time, but if I let that feeling take over it would only cloud my thinking and disable me from making the right decision when it counts the most. I just try to think about my mother, children, God, and of course my freedom.

I just wish that every responsible and concerned person would step back regardless of race and gender and just take a closer look at what's really going on in the world today, and say enough is enough!

We are all victims because of the circumstances, but I'm not sure what to say to any one who has lost a loved one. I know the feeling myself, and words just don't do much to ease the pain.