To some extent, 'The Wall' is asking the question, 'Do you want a voice? And if you do, you better bloody well go out and get it because it's not going to be handed to you on a plate.'
— Roger Waters
Because a lot of people are hurting economically and being shafted by the very wealthy, it's been possible here in the United States of America to organize them and persuade them that to elect a nincompoop like Donald Trump is actually in their best interest. When clearly it isn't.
War is hugely profitable. It creates so much money because it's so easy to spend money very fast. There are huge fortunes to be made. So there is always an encouragement to promote war and keep it going, to make sure that we identify people who are 'others' whom we can legitimately make war upon.
I found that the loudest fans in the world are in Istanbul.
When I first got a guitar, it was a Spanish, classical thing.
I have no problem with any question.
I'm in competition with myself and I'm losing.
I always used to look at books and wonder how anybody could come up with so many words. But my divorce and then falling in love with somebody else has released in me an ability to write in other ways apart from songs.
Not the torturer will scare me, nor the body's final fall, nor the barrels of death's rifles, nor the shadows on the wall, nor the night when to the ground the last dim star of pain, is hurled but the blind indifference of a merciless, unfeeling world.
The United States has such an opportunity to be a leader in the world, and that opportunity has been frittered away.
That's why I call the show 'Us & Them,' because I believe there is no 'them.' There's only 'us.'
Almost everybody thinks that the fight is about ideology. Everybody will tell you, 'Well, the fighting is all about the Middle East.' 'Well, it's about Muslims starting jihad.' 'It's about terrorism.' 'It's about this or that.' And no, it's not. It's about money.
The United States has held out against taking part in any of the world consensus that there should be a court of human rights or that there should be an international court of criminal justice.
You take the risk of being rejected.
I would not rule out going to Israel because I disapprove of the foreign policy any more than I would refuse to play in the UK because I disapprove of Tony Blair's foreign policy.
It's a miracle was the last track recorded for the album, we based it on the rhythm from the middle of 'Late Home Tonight, where there's Graham Broad playing lots and lots of drums with me shouting in the background, pretending to be a mad Arab leader.
Either you write songs or you don't. And if you do write songs like I do, I think there's a natural desire to want to make records.
We live in very volatile times. And it is super necessary that all of us resist this move toward the militarization and establishment of a more and more authoritarian regime, not just in the United States but in Europe and elsewhere.
I've only ever written about one thing in my life, which is the fact that we, as human beings, have a responsibility to one another and that it's important that we empathize with others, that we organize society so that we all become happier and we all get the life we really want.
There is no 'us' and 'them'; it's an illusion. We are all human beings, and we all have a responsibility to support one another and to discover ways of wresting the power from the very, very few people who control all the cash and all the property.
For an artist to go and play in a country that occupies other people's land and oppresses them, the way Israel does, is plain wrong. They should say no.
I think there are things in my story that have helped my creativity. Your father being killed, for instance, is one of the best things that could happen to a kid if he's going to write poetry or songs.
I confess I've never felt like a passenger.
We were contracted to make a soundtrack album but there really wasn't enough new material in the movie to make a new record that I thought was interesting.
I could have been an architect, but I don't think I'd have been very happy. Nearly all modern architecture is a silly game as far as I can see.
