Quotes About Art

The first and most important thing of all, at least for writers today, is to strip language clean, to lay it bare down to the bone.

The first draft of anything is shit.

Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake.

Seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the Actors Studio.

The greatest composer does not sit down to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

Was he so ignorant of human nature as not to know that a comfortable bank balance and an appreciation of good food and tobacco and well-cut clothes and jewels can go perfectly well in practice, in normal beings, with the keenest sensibility to the spiritualities of art?

Todo hombre es poeta. Olvidan hacer versos porque se dedican a hacer otras cosas, hacer dinero, por ejemplo.

El amor y el arte son lo mismo. Chaplin decía que toda obra de arte es una carta de amor escrita a alguien […]

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

In late antique art, we often find the halo bestowed on such figures as might impersonate a supra-individual idea or general notion. This special mark of distinction indicated that the figure was meant to represent in every respect a continuum, something permanent and sempiternal beyond the contingencies of time and corruption.

All I wanted was to connect my moods with those of Paris. Beauty paints and when it painted most, I shot.

A work of art wastes away and becomes lustreless in surroundings where it has a price but not a value. It radiates only when surrounded by love. It is bound to wilt in a world where the rich have no time and the cultivated no money. But it never harmonizes with borrowed greatness.

Der Mensch der keine Zeit hat, und das ist eines unserer Kennzeichen, kann schwerlich Glück haben. Notwendig verschliessen sich ihm grosse Quellen und Mächte wie die Muse, des Glaubens, der Schönheit in Kunst und Natur. Damit entgeht ihm die Krönung, der Segen der Arbeit, der in Nicht-Arbeit, und die Ergänzung, der Sinn des Wissens, der im Nicht-Wissen liegt.

Alle Ziele sind vergänglich, nur die Bewegung ist ewig, und sie bringt unaufhörlich herrliche und unbarmherzige Schauspiele hervor. Sich in ihre erhabene Zwecklosigkeit versenken zu können wie in ein Kunstwerk oder wie in den gestirnten Himmel, das ist nur wenigen vergönnt.

Con los rostros nos pasa como con los cuadros: aunque a menudo nos gusten a primera vista, sólo mucho más tarde reconocemos las leyes de su composición.

Man will begin to recover the moment he takes art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money.

All art needs this visible world and will always need it. Quite simply because, being accessible to all, it is the key to all other worlds.

Gli esseri giovani hanno un'energia illimitata. Franziska non conosceva la vita, e non conosceva l'arte: ella credeva di poterle forzare ambedue, con le sue mani vuote.

La letteratura è un traguardo che non risponde a generi né a temi. Avviene, e quando avviene è festa per chi legge.

Esistono libri che fanno provare un amore più intenso di quello conosciuto, un coraggio più scatenato di quello sperimentato. Dev'essere l'effetto che fa l'arte: supera l'esperienza personale, fa raggiungere al corpo, ai nervi, al sangue, traguardi sconosciuti.

Allora come adesso preferisco il libro al film, per il motivo della precedenza. Non succede che un libro sia tratto da un film.

Hablar es recorrer un hilo. Escribir, en cambio, es poseerlo, devanarlo.

Menulis cerita pendek dan novel bukanlah sesuatu hal yang dapat aku lakukan dengan mudah dan menyenangkan.

The correct translation of the phrase ("Et in Arcadia ego") in its orthodox form is, therefore, not "I, too, was born, or lived, in Arcady," but: "Even in Arcady there am I," from which we must conclude that the speaker is not a deceased Arcadian shepherd or shepherdess but Death in person.