Jimmy Cliff Quotes
People in the Hall of Fame tend to clap their hands and say, 'OK, I've done it all,' but for me, it was a new beginning.
Rome was not built in a day Opposition will come your way But the harder the battle you see It's the sweeter the victory
And I keep on fighting for the things I want. Though I know that when you're dead you can't. But I'd rather be a free man in my grave, than living as a puppet or a slave.
In the country, people are kind. In the city, people are hard an' cold, like the concrete and steel.
I've done a lot of things to become what I've become, out to create and establish a musical form and I call it movie.
Social justice has always been a part of my inspiration. For example, when the Vietnam War was going on, I wrote a song about that.
Beyond everything else, that's one of the things that kept us going, that keeps me going, you know, the eternal love, knowing that I am in the love of the all and all love is in me.
In hindsight, I see the great value of family and how it moulded my life and kept me together. So now family means everything to me.
Everyone needs to realize why am I here? It comes in everyone's life; you ask why am I here? What am I doing? Once you are able to answer that question for yourself honestly, you have smooth sailing.
I had the global outlook that I really wanted to capture the world. I would like the attention of the world at least and I wanted that.
I am not one of those artists who is cemented in one way. I am able to, you know, make the happy, jovial, lighthearted music too. We need that in life too. So it's like that to me.
I've abused myself a lot over the years. But my voice is still intact - really, it's better.
I was a songwriter and I've written some good songs, but there are lots of greater songs that I know I have inside yet to come out.
We're coming into a rebirth of the planet. And some cultures have echoed it, such as the Mayans have echoed that, and it came from the ancient Egyptians.
My role is the shepherd's role. The shepherd is the one who opens the gate and allows the flock to go through and whoever opens the gate has to close it, and the gate is not yet closed.
I would love to see no more ghettos but the things is, there's no diplomacy in the ghetto. They want to tell you something, they tell you straight!
I have not become the artist I believe I am. I want to become a stadium act. I'm not done at all.
My pigment is of the earth, and collecting my sacred fire from my solar plexus with the central sun of the earth.
People might say, 'Jimmy Cliff, you've done a lot, achieved a lot. What more can you want?
I don't think a songwriter should lose their mojo. In my situation, I'm one of those artists that lasts over a long period rather than have your moment and your moment is gone.
Since we're coming into a rebirth, and there's a consciousness of health, because the disease that is death, we are able to overcome that.
I'm an artist. And I'm happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it.
I visit studios. Just to get the feel, the smell, and see what other people are doing. Not only listening to the radio, but going to studios, greeting musicians and artists, just getting a vibe.
Certain artists have a role to echo the echoes of the people and that's what I'll be doing on my next album.
I'm very attached to my family and protective of them and miss them, and that situation, my connection with that can make me become very vulnerable.
If I don't channel pain into a song, I play my guitar or play the piano or play my drums, or go swimming.
The love is the part of us that can never go. It's the essence that was always there, so that can never go.
We're not to be surprised at all what we see happening in every part of the world. It's a change of the return of things.
We need that expression. Whether we want to call it protest or not, we need to express and echo the echoes of the people. Artists need to do that.
