Quotes by Michael Franti

The harder they hit us, the louder we become, kind of like the skin on a drum.

Many kids in foster homes have a lot of emotions that are hard to get out. It's important to let them know they can make a difference in the community.

Everybody's opinion is equally valid, and I feel like everybody should have an opportunity to speak out, and everyone should have the courage to speak out.

I don't know if it's so grand that I can change the entire world, but I know that I can help one person. So that's the goal.

Everyone deserves music.

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.

With all the people hating and hurting each other, I don't understand how people could get upset about people of the same sex caring for each other.

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.

You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace. Power to the peaceful.

The times when I feel not alive is when I feel stifled, when I feel like the emotion that's in me is not coming out. I'm too busy, too hectic. I'm serving my iPhone more than my spirit. Those are the times I feel bad.

The human interest, and the natural interest, and the spiritual interest of this planet need to begin to take a priority over the corporate interest, the military interest, and the materialistic interests.

Be as radiant as the sun, as healing as the rain, as generous as a tree.

Music and yoga have a great synergy.

Television, the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.

Be who you are, nothing more... nothing less.

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.

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

Those who start wars, never fight them, And those who fight wars, they never like them.

One of the things I love about yoga is that it brings you into the present moment. You aren't worried about what will happen tomorrow and you aren't thinking about what happened yesterday. It's about opening your heart and living from your heart.

I could be really sad and I start to cry; I feel alive then. I could be at a concert and I throw my hands up in the air and I feel elation; I feel alive then.

My yoga practice, I do it because when I get on my mat, I know I'm going to be transformed. I know that whatever stresses are in my life or whatever worries I have or whatever monkey mind is happening for me, when I get off the mat, I'm going to be transformed.

Sometimes, I feel like I can do anything, and, sometimes, I'm so alive, sometimes, I feel like I could zoom across the sky and, sometimes, I wanna cry.

Star Wars is mythology. Its like Greek mythology or Shakespeare. Its the story of good versus evil over a very long span of time. The storytelling is universal and timeless.

Every bit of land is a Holy land, and every drop of water is Holy water, and every single child is a son or a daughter of the one Earth mama, and the one Earth papa.

I believe that in order to tackle the big issues of the world today, like environmental issues, we need everybody's involvement. We need the resources of the corporate world. We need the cooperation of governments. We need the wisdom of indigenous people.

It was hard for me, as a father, to imagine going through what my birth mom went through, to raise a child inside of her for nine months, and then have to say goodbye. And so it's hard for me to understand that pain and that process.

I was adopted when I was a baby. My mother carried me for nine months and she held me for one hour, and didn't see me again.

My mother and father took me in and provided everything for me -- the love, nurturing, basic necessities -- to give me the space to grow wings, so that when I went out into the world, I could fly.

Having personal things in balance is more important than the other.

Only a rat can win a rat race.

I came up playing in both punk rock bands and hip-hop bands, and I found a more universal way of reaching people, especially with music that has a message to it.

The more I see, the less I know.

Don't fear the night time, Because the monsters know that you're divine. And don't fear the sunshine, Because everything is better in the summer time.

When we all see justice, then we'll all see peace!

Whenever people go out of their way to help other people -- there's power and beauty in our diversity.

It's never too late to start the day over.

Don't let mistakes be so monumental, don't let your love be so confidential, don't let your mind be so darn judgemental, and please let your heart be more influential. Be thankful for all that the spirit provides and be thankful for all that you see without eyes.

Power to the peaceful!

My house was filled with music. We had a piano, and my brothers and sisters played instruments. Even though I was around it, I played basketball.

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.

'Star Wars' is mythology. It's like Greek mythology or Shakespeare. It's the story of good versus evil over a very long span of time. The storytelling is universal and timeless.

You get everything you could have ever wished for if you're willing to give that eternal bliss away to somebody else, to give it back.

I have moments all the time when I play.

Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.

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.

It doesn't matter if you're black, white, gay, straight, come from different countries, different language... every single person is significant and is meaningful.

People worry that gas prices are high and how they are affecting their pocket book. But they want to know about renewable energy. People are really starting to question things, and that's made people look to the future in a positive way.

In Jamaica, the music is recorded for the sound system, not the iPod. It's about experiencing music together, with other people.

Recording in Jamaica is like nothing else. The studios are always closed in America. But in Jamaica, the studio doors are wide open, and there's music blasting out in the street. You can see the reaction of people immediately.

I always identified with that feeling of being an underdog. So I always was looking to connect with and meet people from other cultures, to experience people living a different life that I am.

Our country was founded on immigration. We are all occupying Native American land here. At what point do we say 'It's our land, and nobody else can come here.'

I have a desire that I want to make people feel happy through my music. I'm always trying to find optimistic ways to express myself.

I really encourage people to travel so we can see how the rest of the world views our country. That's really important. Secondly, as artists, activists, and citizens who vote, we have to begin to vote from our heart.

I really believe that, as an artist, my opportunity to help to bring about awakening is one that should come from a personal process that someone has, and not from me telling somebody that this is the way it is.

The more places I go to, the more I realize I understand so little about the world.

I hope I inspire people to dream bigger than what they are living, but a dream within their reach.

The way the music comes to you starts to affect how you listen to music. When you're a kid, it's 'Does it rock? Does it make me feel good? Does it make me tap my feet? Does it make me go to sleep?'

All my songs are different, but from the overall experience, I want people to sense that they can overcome and move through difficult times and find strength in my music. Maybe it's a song that makes them cry and move through something else.

My music is part of the quest I have to find new ways of telling stories, and also, I want to inspire people.

We have a saying in my house, my kids and my girlfriend. We say, 'Be your best for the greater good, and rock out wherever you are.'

Johnny Cash was a rebel, not only just in the musical sense, but he was somebody who was for the people, and an advocate for labor, for workers, for prisoners, people who have been trapped by the criminal justice system.

Collectively, we activists are essential to advancing U.S. policy to help empower marginalized people to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty for good.

History shows that Americans believe in doing the right thing.

The U.S. has historically been the world's largest contributor to climate change.

I went to the University of San Francisco on an athletic scholarship. I didn't study in high school. I was just there to get by and to play basketball. But a funny thing happened to me when I got to college. I got challenged by the work and the professors.

I'm a news junkie who's constantly reading newspapers and magazines. I look around and see what's happening in the world.

People underestimate the hip-hop audience and the capacity to understand politics when it's part of music.

I drive a hybrid. It's a Ford Escape. That's my only car.

I'm always trying to find optimistic ways to express myself.

It really is a strange time we're living in, when saying 'Don't kill people' is considered a radical point of view.

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.

After a show, I'll get the 16-year-old white kid whose lip is pierced, his head is shaved and his parents hate him, and the young gangster from the screwed-up 'hood, and they say that now they realize there's someone out there who thinks like they do.

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

In the '80s, Ronald Reagan inspired me to become politicized, because I grew up in that era when everything I cared about was under attack.

San Francisco has always been a haven for misfits and weirdos. I'm both of those, which is why I came here.

Not all artists have a responsibility to be socially or politically aware, but they do have a responsibility to make great art. They have to find some truth and put that in their music.

To sit back and say, 'Oh, we're going to let the government do whatever they want, right or wrong,' is giving up.

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.

Bonnaroo has kind of become the granddaddy of all American festivals. The thing I love about it most is that it wasn't born out of picking the top ten bands off the Billboard chart and creating a festival around it.

Jamaica's a country of great dichotomy. On the one hand you have a tourist industry with great beaches and resorts, but on the other you have such great poverty and the violence that goes along with that.