Quotes About Art

I don't like the idea of "understanding" a film. I don't believe that rational understanding is an essential element in the reception of any work of art. Either a film has something to say to you or it hasn't. If you are moved by it, you don't need it explained to you. If not, no explanation can make you moved by it.

We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony. We should learn to love each other so much to live outside of time... detached.

Going to the cinema is like returning to the womb; you sit there still and meditative in the darkness, waiting for life to appear on the screen. One should go to the cinema with the innocence of a fetus

I'm just a storyteller, and the cinema happens to be my medium. I like it because it recreates life in movement, enlarges it, enhances it, distills it. For me, it's far closer to the miraculous creation of life than, say, a painting or music or even literature. It's not just an art form; it's actually a new form of life, with its own rhythms, cadences, perspectives and transparencies. It's my way of telling a story.

Paint me a heaven of love with your bloodied mouth.

Escribo porque, si no, me pudro por dentro.

Si me preguntan ustedes por qué digo yo "Mil panderos de cristal herían la madrugada", les diré que los he visto en manos de ángeles y árboles, pero no sabré decir nada más, ni mucho menos explicar su significado. Y está bien que sea así. El hombre se acerca por medio de la poesía con más rapidez al filo donde el filósofo y el matemático vuelven la espalda en silencio.

Silencio de cal y mirto. Malvas en las hierbas finas. La monja borda alhelíes sobre una tela pajiza... ... ¡Qué girasol! ¡Qué magnolia de lentejuelas y cintas! ¡Qué azafranes y qué lunas, en el mantel de la misa!

We have said that the duende likes the edge of things, the wound, and that it is drawn to where forms fuse themselves in a longing greater than their visible expressions. — Federico García Lorca, from "Theory and Function of the Duende," trans. J. L. Gilli, 1933, Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry 1800-1950 , ed. Melissa Kwasny (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)

Federico García Lorca

La poesia non cerca seguaci, cerca amanti.

Dünya'n?n bu dramatik an?nda sanatç? kendi halk?yla aÄŸlamal? ve onunla gülmelidir.

Creo que los toros es la fiesta más culta que hay en el mundo. Es el drama puro en que el cual el español derrama sus mejores lágrimas y su bilis. Es el único sitio a donde se va con la seguridad de ver la muerte rodeada de la más deslumbradora belleza (...)

Comprenderás que un poeta no puede decir nada de la Poesía. Eso déjaselo a los críticos y profesores. Pero ni tú ni yo ni ningún poeta sabemos lo que es la Poesía.

At the heart of all great art is an essential melancholy.

La poesía no quiere adeptos, quiere amantes.

Angel and Muse approach from without; the Angel sheds light and the Muse gives form (Hesiod learned of them).  Gold leaf or chiton-folds: the poet finds his models in his laurel coppice. But the Duende, on the other hand, must come to life in the nethermost recesses of the blood.

The artist, and particularly the poet, is always an anarchist in the best sense of the word. He must heed only the call that arises within him from three strong voices: the voice of death, with all its foreboding, the voice of love and the voice of art.

And just what is the most precious thing in life that riches can supply? Easy. For me, it's Time. Time. Time to read and write poetry if I want to. Or to write a book if it takes my fancy. Time to travel on the slightest whim, to walk in the woods, to think, to commission art, to read, to drink, to hang out with friends and loved ones … to do just about anything really, as long as it does not involve day after grinding day making money in an office or a factory for somebody else.

the ability to sell, which is usually nothing more than a talent for hype and keeping a straight face as you demand a fifty times markup from potential buyers who wouldn't know a Damien Hirst from a pickled sardine.

Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art.

Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God.

People often complain that music is too ambiguous, that what they should think when they hear it is so unclear, whereas everyone understands words. With me, it is exactly the opposite, and not only with regard to an entire speech but also with individual words.

Felix Timmermans