George Clinton > Quotes

“Free your mind... and your ass will follow.”
― George Clinton

“Fuck it; put it in a bucket, and take it to the stage!”
― George Clinton

“I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe; I was not offended, for I knew I had to rise above it all or drown in my own shit...”
― George Clinton

“Style is whatever you want to do, if you can do it with confidence.”
― George Clinton

“Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time
For y'all have knocked her up
I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe
I was not offended
For I knew I had to rise above it all
Or drown in my own shit”
― George Clinton

“He affected an authority that came off as arrogant. It never bothered me too much, because we were rebels anyway. I knew that his high-toned ways were a strategy for existing, just like our psychedelic ways. You learned that at the barbershop, when people came to you for a new style, for a way of presenting themselves to the outside world. We designed people’s looks back at the Silk Palace, and we designed our own looks as Funkadelic. In truth, underneath the image, I was a much more reserved, centered, circumspect person. In fact, that’s why I was able to carry off those crazy looks. It was freedom generated by misdirection, and it allowed me to focus on my real self, the identity I was nurturing away from any kind of spotlight.”
― George Clinton, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir

“See, you're a damn fool if you see somebody starving and poor and you think they should just stay starving and poor and not take care of them.... And if I got some little bit of money and I ain't making sure that you got some, I'm a damn fool if I don't expect you to come and try to take it. It's not as easy as each person is responsible for being in their predicament.”
― George Clinton

“There was a band jam going, a slow groove I knew he could get into, and we were trying to launch his solo. Before he started, I told him to play like his mother had died, to picture that day, what he would feel, how he would make sense of his life, how he would take a measure of everything that was inside him and let it out through his guitar. Eddie was the kind of player who rose to a challenge. If you gave him instructions or a prompt, he’d come around to it. And when he started playing, I knew immediately that he understood what I meant. I could see the guitar notes stretching out like a silver web. When we played the solo back, I knew that it was good beyond good, not only a virtuoso display of musicianship but also an almost unprecedented moment of emotion in pop music. That was the missing ingredient that arrived in time for that song; it was maybe the first time that our emotional ability as artists matched our technical ability as players.”
― George Clinton, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard On You?: A Memoir

“Think...it ain't illegal...yet.”
― George Clinton, Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You?: A Memoir