Cleve Jones > Quotes

“We are survivors. We shall survive again and we shall be the strongest, most gentle people on this earth.”
― Cleve Jones

“are we a queer and distinct people, with revolutionary potential born from our experiences—or are we really just like everybody else except for what we do in bed?”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“I wasn’t an activist then. I would become one eventually, but at that time I did not yet see myself as an organizer or a leader, I saw myself as a foot soldier in the movement and as an active participant—not a bystander or observer—in a particular and extraordinary moment in history. I think that all of my friends felt some degree of obligation to at least show up, be counted, and stand with our brothers and sisters and to be as fierce and fabulous and free as possible”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“When we weren’t dancing or fucking, we were marching. Marching for the Sandinistas and against Nicaraguan strongman Somoza. Marching for the Filipino people and against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Marching in solidarity with the people of Chile and against the murderous General Pinochet. Marching against nuclear power and offshore oil drilling. Marching for equal pay for women in the US and against apartheid in South Africa.”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“I guess I’ll always miss him. It gets easier every year, but then suddenly, out of nowhere, a smell or a sound or an old song will bring it all rushing back and it hurts as if he died this morning. Somehow, you just have to keep going.”
― Cleve Jones, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist

“I was surviving, and that seemed quite a lot.”
― Cleve Jones

“On the pavement, just down from our flat, someone spray-painted the SLA’s seven-headed cobra symbol and their slogan: “Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!”

Dora was not impressed and rolled his eyes, asking, “Shouldn’t it rhyme?”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“Society is going to have to deal with us not as nice little fairies who have hairdressing salons, but as people capable of violence. We’re not going to put up with Dan Whites anymore.”
― Cleve Jones, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist

“Sadly, even today, most US citizens never leave the country and many never, or rarely, leave their home state. This lack of curiosity about, let alone respect for, other cultures is a hallmark of US nationalism and part of why Americans continue to condone stupid and self-defeating foreign policies.”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“Only when large numbers of people demand everything immediately do we ever get anything eventually.”
― Cleve Jones

“Some people are sore losers, maybe I’m a sore winner.”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“Don’t hate for long; it isn’t worth it. It isn’t worth it!”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“And in the funny world that I lived in, that all of us lived in, pain was the bridge that we met on, and that was progress.”
― Cleve Jones, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist

“Raise the sky. We got to fly over the land, over the sea. Fate unwinds and if we die, souls arise. God, do not seize me please, till victory.”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement

“Every land has its history, its genocides, its triumphs, and its shame, depending on where you look, how closely, and when.”
― Cleve Jones, When We Rise: My Life in the Movement