You go back and you read your Constitution. You read your Declaration of Independence. And you will see that the only people who could decide these freedoms were white males who owned property, and all the rest of us were excluded. – John Trudell
In a personal context, I’m not in the ground, and I’m not in an institution. So I guess I’m doing pretty good. – John Trudell
When I left politics in the early Eighties and started writing and recording, my idea was that I could have an influence further down into other generations. That Natives could come into the culture through arts and music. – John Trudell
I don’t write as much now as I used to, but I write. The lines still come, maybe periodically, and I’ll go through these little bursts of time where I write a lot of things then a long period of time where maybe I don’t write anything. – John Trudell
All politics to me – Indian or white – is an illusion preventing us from being authentic because we’re communicating through something that isn’t real to us. – John Trudell
I wasn’t interested in having to live with a camera – I have a hard enough time getting along with myself. I don’t need cameras around and all that action. – John Trudell
I find there is room in music to talk with music. It may expand ways people can participate with music. It doesn’t sound hokey or like some kind of voice-over. – John Trudell
Because we are all of an oral tradition in our beginning histories, the voice of the poet in this particular society will be heard. – John Trudell
Whatever their reasons, Hollywood, or the entertainment industry, is saying something about Indians. I don’t see the rest of the media knocking down any doors to do that. – John Trudell
For decades, my identity was political, but I’ve come to understand that there’s no political solution when you’re dealing with someone else’s rules. – John Trudell
I was going mad. One day, I just started writing, and it was like therapy because I was in a position where I couldn’t rage. I never expected to be a writer; it’s a different world than I ever expected to be in. – John Trudell
I am just a human being trying to make it in a world that is rapidly losing its understanding of being human. – John Trudell
From activist stage, I just spoke and said whatever I had to say. When the writing started, I would just read it. Then I had the interest into going into musical aspects. When that happened in ’86, I liked the result of work we did in the studio. – John Trudell
When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art. – John Trudell
My influences in this world have always been Crazy Horse and Malcolm X, my overall influences. But I was influenced by rock n’ roll, blues, and country music. I was influenced by singers. – John Trudell
We cannot change the political system, we cannot change the economic system, we cannot change the social system, until the people control the land, and then we take it out of the hands of that sick minority that chooses to pervert the meaning and the intention of humanity. – John Trudell
I have a real interest in working with younger Native artists. I think it’s a very important way for Native people to communicate the realities of our culture and remember our ancestors. – John Trudell
I’m a member of the American Indian Movement, and I’m from the indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere. – John Trudell
I wanted to take the power of thought and the word, along with the power of speaking and heart, and see if we could wire what was coming out of us as humans with electric instruments. – John Trudell
All that I am is me. So I’m not really a poet or a writer or an actor or an activist; I’m me, and these are things that I do. – John Trudell
I appreciate all of your expressions of concern, and I appreciate all of your expressions of love. It has been like a fire to my heart. – John Trudell
What I view life like is about energy. Everything is about energy – everything. We physically are little units of electrical energy, and we vibrate and project electromagnetic thought. – John Trudell
