Quotes on Art

I am a poor man and of little worth, who is laboring in that art that God has given me in order to extend my life as long as possible.

A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.

Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter.

Nine times out of ten, in the arts as in life, there is actually no truth to be discovered; there is only error to be exposed.

Art is the objectification of feeling.

To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom, and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.

In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are capable of it.

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

Nature is inside art as its content, not outside as its model.

But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature.

The city is a fact in nature, like a cave, a run of mackerel or an ant-heap. But it is also a conscious work of art, and it holds within its communal framework many simpler and more personal forms of art. Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms condition mind.

She has a laugh so hearty it knocks the whipped cream off an order of strawberry shortcake on a table fifty feet away.

True perfection seems imperfect,_x000D_ _x000D_ yet it is perfectly itself._x000D_ _x000D_ True fullness seems empty,_x000D_ _x000D_ yet it is fully present._x000D_ _x000D_ True straightness seems crooked._x000D_ _x000D_ True wisdom seems foolish._x000D_ _x000D_ True art seems artless._x000D_ _x000D_ The Master allows things to happen._x000D_ _x000D_ She shapes events as they come._x000D_ _x000D_ She steps out of the way_x000D_ _x000D_ and lets the Tao speak for itself.

You learn this great lesson of life: it's not about me. It's just not. The matter of talent-which seemed so important to you when you were young-is not of great importance. We're simply a conduit. We take things out of the air into us and put them in the form of stories. That's pretty much it.

A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

The moment you can learn to deal with homosexuality in art, it's quite an exciting moment, just as in a sense when people 'come out' it's quite an exciting moment. It means they become aware of their desires, and can deal with them in a remarkably honest way.

Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong.

As the unity of the modern world becomes increasingly a technological rather than a social affair, the techniques of the arts provide the most valuable means of insight into the real direction of our own collective purposes.

The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.