Cass Elliot

"I dont think its so important who you vote for — you vote for who you believe in. The important thing is to vote, because its our way and its the best way."

"I think I would like to be a Senator or something in twenty years. I dont think I really know enough yet. Im just 30 now and I wouldnt even be eligible to run for office for another five years. But I have a lot of feelings about things. I know the way I would like to see things for this country and in my travels, when I talk to people, everybody wants pretty much the same thing: peace, enough jobs, no poverty and good education. And Ive learned a lot. Its funny. So many people in show business go into politics, and I used to say "What the heck do they know about it?" But when you travel around, you really do get to feel — not to be cliche — the pulse of the country and what people want. Im concerned and its not good to be unconcerned and just sit there."

"Having the baby changed my life a lot. I dont want to go on the road, you see. Its actually a matter of economics, much like the Vietnamese war, I guess. I didnt want to go on the road and I wanted to stay home with my baby. I guess I could go to Kansas and be a waitress and support my child that way. But Id rather live comfortable and I wanted to do more creative work. I didnt just want to be part of a group. I wanted to be able to do television, and a movie if it came up, to sort of diversify myself, to extend myself. Within the framework of a group, that freedom is not possible."

"I hated it. Everybodyd say, "Hey, mama, whats happening?" Then came the Mamas and Papas and I was stuck with it. And now people call me Mama Cass because of the baby. So I dont know whether Im gonna be able to really get away from it."

"I say, "Look, Im here now. There must be a reason Im here." If thats fatalistic, be that as it may. Where my work is, is where my life is, and if were falling in the ocean, were falling into the ocean."

"Ive heard that story about kids are high naturally, but Ive seen kids that arent high, kids whove had the high taken out of them."

"I think everybody who has a brain should get involved in politics. Working within. Not criticizing it from the outside. Become an active participant, no matter how feeble you think the effort is."

"I hope these babies have a world to live in. I hope they have a place to go, a land to walk on. I remember when I was ten years old, in Washington, D.C., and I lived with fear of the atom bomb that would keep me awake nights and make me wake up screaming. I used to babysit for my younger brother and sister and Id be terrified if I heard a siren, a police car, or an ambulance. Id say, "My God, what if this is it! How do I protect them?" We used to have duck-and-cover exercises in school, where theyd ring a bell at any time of the day, sometimes five or six times a day, and wed crawl under our desks and put our hands like this to protect the back of our necks from the bomb. We all carried that with us."

"I think the most successful way to overthrow any government is through infiltration. Its been proven for years. The dream, of course, is that there is going to be a fantastic cataclysm, and that tomorrow we have Adlai Stevenson in the White House. Thats not going to happen, and not because Adlai Stevenson is dead. The reason its not going to happen is that kind of overthrow is not possible. So I will work in the only way I know how, and that is within the establishment — because that is the only existing program. Let someone come up with another one and if its good Id do it in a second."

"Lets take the people who have latent thoughts about maybe the United States isnt always right. They hear a song like "Give a Damn" and maybe itll awaken them. If it makes you cross that bridge between apathy and effective participation, thats great. Theres so much talk about the Drug Generation and songs about drugs. Thats stupid. They arent songs about drugs; theyre about life. Music can play a huge part, because its the international communicative force."

"My philosophy is Im gonna fight as hard as I can to keep all the bad things from happening. But if they are gonna happen and I happen to be in the city where they are happening — like in the song, "California Earthquake" — then theres not much I can do about it. I cant uproot my whole life, just because I have a feeling that things may not work out all right. Theres also always the chance that everything is going to be just swell, guys. Just hang in there. But I dont think it can happen on its own."

"I know very few who are willing to die for their convictions. I wouldnt be hit on the head with a billy club or have mace squirted in my face. When I was younger and a radical at American University maybe… as a matter of fact, I was at the march on the Pentagon just last year, right in the front taking pictures, just being there to find out what was happening, and I was knocked down and stepped on. I dont want to do that again. It didnt accomplish anything. They lied about everything that happened. Everything in the newspapers were just lies."