Mikis Theodorakis Quotes

‘I write for all the peoples of all the world.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘Always I have lived with two sounds – one political, one musical.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I want to leave this world as a Communist.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I’m not a communist or social democrat or anything else. I’m a free man.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘The Greeks have needlessly been maneuvered towards the abyss.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I love the Jewish people, I love the Jews!’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I put one questions. For whom I compose? My answer is I wanted to address to all my people. And if I write music for the Greek people because I’m Greek, I compose for all the people.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘We cry. The Greeks cry because we have not an objective today. Yesterday we have objective to put off the dictatorship. Today the objective is to find ourselves.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I wanted to unite the popular and the serious, and to make a popular symphony, a popular oratorio.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘My work is based upon contemporary Greek poetry – poetry which is concerned with the problems of today’s civilization and, of course, with simple personal feelings of love, nostalgia, etc.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘When I was still a child, there was the Metaxis, a Fascist Youth Movement in which all subteenagers and teenagers were obligatory members, where they tried to imbue us with two ideals – nationalism and Christianity.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘Those who had talked to us about national pride and Christian brotherly love were the first to come to terms or actively collaborate with the Germans. It was an immense blow to my entire intellectual and emotional existence.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘Whether art is music or cinema or whatever, it really is art only when it is in touch with the people – forced to respond to their agonies, their joys and their aspirations.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I have been trying for years to perform in America. Now the first time I am here there is a strike. I must play. It is what I must do.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘In Greece, the picket line is forbidden.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I will continue to be critical of the system. Every honest patriot continues to fight against it.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘New York is a town of my height.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘I like always to be contemporary. I like to deal with the things of today.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘We people, maybe because we have the greatest wisdom, we are also mad. We destroy the harmony of the world.’ – Mikis Theodorakis

‘We saw that on the Turkish side there was a sincere wish for peace. But before I could even put my foot back on Greek soil people called me a traitor.’ – Mikis Theodorakis