QuoteProject
There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to university, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.
Amanda Palmer
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Being an artist is a personal declaration, not bound by external validation or traditional paths.

Amanda Palmer's quote emphasizes that the journey to becoming a true artist is unique to each individual and does not rely on conventional markers of success such as education or fame. Instead, one becomes an artist by recognizing and affirming their own identity in that role, and by evoking meaningful emotions in others through their work.

Themes

ArtistCreativityIdentityExpressionValidation

In practice

Example use cases

In an art class to inspire students to believe in themselves.

More from Amanda Palmer

I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is how do we make people pay for music? What if we started asking, how do we let people pay for music?
Amanda PalmerRead
In other words, let's give our young women the right weapons to fight with as they charge naked into battle, instead of ordering them to get back in the house and put some goddamn clothes on.
Amanda PalmerRead

Similar quotes

When you have a large space to conquer, the curve is the natural solution.
Oscar NiemeyerRead
When I was younger, I thought I had to shut myself off, work really hard to cry. I learned after a while that that's just not... You know, often in life, you cry when you're caught off-guard. That's where I need to be when I'm acting, too.
Julianne MooreRead
I don't like the idea that the first preparation when you start to design your building has to put your label. I think this is not fair. It's not fair to the building or to the people, to the client, because every building tells a different story.
Renzo PianoRead
We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.
Arthur O'ShaughnessyRead
I really believed that anything at all was worth writing about if you cared about it enough, and that the best and only necessary justification for writing any particular story was that I cared about it.
Susan OrleanRead
Camera lies all the time. It’s all it does is lie, because when you choose this moment instead of this moment, when you… the moment you’ve made a choice, you’re lying about something larger. Lying is an ugly word. I don’t mean lying. But any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.
Richard AvedonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.