Quotes on Art

Art doesn't have to do anything. It just has to be there for the fierce pleasure we take in doing it.

I think art is sublimated libido. You can’t be a eunuch priest, and you can’t be a eunuch artist.

The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers.

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.

I see a movie as a way of learning about the world, about myself, and learning about my relationship with people and art.

What lives in art and is eternally living, is first of all the painter and then the painting.

Be natural my children. For the writer that is natural has fulfilled all the rules of art.

To read a novel is a difficult and complex art. You must be capable not only of great fineness of perception, but of great boldness of imagination.

The Difference Between Art and Life is that Art is More Bearable

Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.

Usually, when we talk about creativity, it's about self-expression, which is great, but for work to be art or design, there has to be someone on the other end. The audience makes the work come alive.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

In art, truth is a means to an end; in science, it is the only end.

I never called my work an 'art'. It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment.

Mastering the art of asking questions is essential to creativity and innovation. A More Beautiful Question should be standard reading for all aspiring design thinkers as well an inspiration to those searching for a life of curiosity and meaning.

In many ways, religion comes from the same place in us that art comes from. The language of the human heart if poetry

I think competition in any kind of activity like music, art, literature - anything that's not done with a timer - is actually impossible. So, in effect, what you're doing is you're entering the lottery. You're hoping that you play well (and that) you play your best on the day that you're heard, and you're hoping that the people who are judging will like what you do.

The great moral question of the twenty-first century is this: if all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone; if everyone can have everything, anywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone?

If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?

My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression. I don’t think anybody can separate art from politics. The intention to separate [the two] is itself a very political intention.

This so-called contemporary art is not a form, but a philosophy of society.