Quote

When people blanket a whole class of people with statements, I just think that is unfair to everybody. I could do the same thing about media. I can do the same thing about politicians or lawyers, and they're just never accurate.

It's unbelievable that people have the time and inclination to be as negative as they are on a public platform about people who accomplish whatever they do in the public eye.

I think there's a difference between calling people out and understanding the role that the press plays in a free society.

Sometimes, political campaigns make decent people act and talk like perfect buffoons.

My job as an artist is to speak up for those who might be perceived as the losers. Or those who can't shout. No wonder public-school people always get into politics or acting: they're taught to shout that much more loudly.

However vile the abuse they receive, media people must remember this is part of the price of getting a public voice. Stay grateful. Don't kick down, kick up. Criticise power rather than proles.

For free-speech principles to be reinforced and free-market ideas to win the day, more people are going to have to stand up and be heard.

Maybe it's true that people with less extreme views who are also interested in public affairs have been driven out by a marketplace that doesn't offer them anything of the tone they want to listen to.

Poor speakers create an artificial divide between themselves and the audience. They feel they need to do this in order to establish their own credibility.

I don't do the media because of 'Woo-woo, Julia Butterfly,' as I call it. I'm not into promoting me. I'm into talking about why I've done what I've done, why I continue to do this work and why other people should care.