Top 20 Gil Scott-Heron Quotes

Words matter. These are the best Gil Scott-Heron Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.

If someone comes to you and asks for help, and you can

If someone comes to you and asks for help, and you can help them, you’re supposed to help them. Why wouldn’t you? You have been put in the position somehow to be able to help this person.
Gil Scott-Heron
I was born in Chicago, but I was raised in a town called Jackson, Tennessee. And a lot of these changes that were necessary and talked about it as important have been made, like, people go to school where they want to go. They work for equal pay, they work for – they can go school and have an equal shot at a job.
Gil Scott-Heron
I was a better writer when I was teaching. I was constantly going over the basics and constantly reminding myself, as I reminded my students, what made a good story, a good poem.
Gil Scott-Heron
If you aren’t having no fun, die, because you’re running a worthless program, far as I’m concerned.
Gil Scott-Heron
The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people’s faces, because that’s the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about.
Gil Scott-Heron
Everything that’s bad for you catches on too quickly in America, because that’s the easiest thing to get people to invest in, the pursuits that are easy and destructive, the ones that bring out the least positive aspects of people.
Gil Scott-Heron
Schedule? I have no schedule. There is no hurry. I work when I want to.
Gil Scott-Heron
I am honestly not sure how capable I am of love. And I’m not sure why.
Gil Scott-Heron
I was one of the first three black students to go to an all-white school in Tennessee.
Gil Scott-Heron
Our accomplishments show what kind of people we are.
Gil Scott-Heron
Well, I grew up on the blues, man!
Gil Scott-Heron
I tour more than I need to, more than is good for you. But it’s my favorite part of music. I much prefer it to studio work.
Gil Scott-Heron
I cannot afford to watch Fox News.
Gil Scott-Heron
My songs were always about the tone of voice rather than the words.
Gil Scott-Heron
Your life has to consist of more than ‘Black people should unite.’ You hope they do, but not twenty-four hours a day.
Gil Scott-Heron
You should be able to do anything you can afford as an adult.
Gil Scott-Heron
I was a piano player before I was a poet.
Gil Scott-Heron
As for money – when I have it, it’s great. When I don’t, I go get some. I’ve been a dishwasher, a gardener, a cleaner.
Gil Scott-Heron
You see, revolution sounds like something that happens, like turning on the light switch, but actually it’s moving a large obstacle, and a lot of folks’ efforts to push it in one direction or the other have to combine.
Gil Scott-Heron
You know what has made me the happiest I’ve ever been? Seeing my son and daughter graduate from college. More than wanting them to be educated, I wanted them to be nice people. To see that they have become both is just a wonderful thing.
Gil Scott-Heron