Heathcote Williams > Quotes

“Industrialists, who turn the Amazonian jungle into useless tundra or cement over half the planet, are not, for some reason, machine-gunned en masse, nor captured and exhibited, nor do they have their teeth extracted and carved into little men.”
― Heathcote Williams, Dracula

“Asked what he would undertake first,
Were he called upon to rule a nation,
Confucius replied: 'To correct language . . .
If language is not correct,
Then what is said is not what is meant,
Then what ought to be done remains undone;
If this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate;
If morals and art deteriorate, justice "All go astray;
If justice goes astray
The people will stand about in helpless confusion.
Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said.
This mattars above everything.'

Asked to surrender in World War Two,
The Japanese employed the word 'mokusatsu'
In replying to the Potsdam ultimatum.
The word given out by the Domei news agency
Was interpreted in Washington as 'treat with contempt'
Rather than 'withholding comment' - pending a decision
Its correct meaning.
The Americans concluded that their ultimatum had been rejected;
The boys in the back-room could play with their new toy
A hundred and forty thousand people lay round in helpless confusion.

Today 'peace' is mis-translated, and means a seething stalemate
Instead of calm;
'Strength' is mis-translated, and means paranoid force
Instead of right-minded confidence...”
― Heathcote Williams

“A friend of mine, Warren Lemming, has this theory: if you’re famous, it’s as if you’ve got a golden monkey on your shoulder. When people come up to talk to you, they just see the monkey.”
― Heathcote Williams

“I've always thought the most effective method of distribution is to give your work away.”
― Heathcote Williams

“The self is inflated,
Then deflated,
In a lemming rhythm of auto-destruction.
Half a million auto-fatalities per annum.
The fast-food-junk-death-road-show.”
― Heathcote Williams, Autogeddon