Quotes About Artistry

All good art is an indiscretion.

The smell of ink is intoxicating to me — others may have wine, but I have poetry.

I find myself most drawn to: art that has arisen from a deeply personal conversation between the artist and the work at hand. It is art that walks perilously close to the Edge, that crosses the river of blood into Faerie, that flies so high it is scorched by the sun, and then returns to tell the tale to us. It is art that needed to be written, or painted, or sung, or woven, or otherwise shaped. It is art gifted by the Mystery to the maker...and then, in turn, gifted to us .

If I'm anything, I'm not a singer, I'm a song stylist.

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock—shock is a worn-out word—but astonish.

The piano ain't got no wrong notes.

Every fucking corner of everything you write is precious, if it isn't why would you write it?

Architecture is a discipline that takes time and patience. If one spends enough years writing complex novels one might be able, someday, to construct a respectable haiku.

The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.

If a story is no good, being based on Hamlet won't save it.

Books should be like magical jewelled boxes. It's the writer's job to tell the story. My job [the artist] is to make you want to pick up the box, and to peer inside.

A man cannot make a pair of shoes rightly unless he do it in a devout manner.

The Poet who could merely sit on a chair, and compose stanzas, would never make a stanza worth much. He could not sing the Heroic warrior, unless he himself were at least a Heroic warrior too.

Find a man whose words paint you a likeness, you have found a man worth something; mark his manner of doing it, as very characteristic of him.

Drake is damn near the best with melodies.

The nearest figure to myself would be Shakespeare.

A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.

We don't always know what we're doing. We often just get excited, put something down, and say, 'Oh, neat'.

For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.

You learn fast from others how to be an entertainer as well as a musician; you don't necessarily have to get out there and just play - you can be an entertainer, too.

I think every actor wants a certain amount of control. Maybe not control, as such, but just to be part of the process. But it's not necessary, I guess.

When a real artist creates something, it has to be a necessity, the only way he can say something.

I'm in a very good place to make records. Needing to make money off music is very dangerous.