Quotes About Art

My true social media passion is making creepy short movies on Instagram.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.

'6 Times' is an attempt to reinvestigate the social responsibility of sculpture. The body in question is a particular body, but it doesn't really matter whose it is.

I'm not saying everybody has a social responsibility of what art they create, but art should be open-ended. I just feel there's a lack of consciousness and understanding of impact and reach. Just maybe, for a second, just think of the effect you could have with a lyric.

Filmmaking is not a job but a social responsibility for me.

Both my parents were actors. I was schooled to think that acting was an important social service, that it was something that human beings need.

Obviously, Kanye and I are very different in the way we express ourselves publicly. He's so passionate... about art, about culture, about creativity. And he's really good at it. And that honesty manifests itself in ways that are not politically correct, not socially acceptable sometimes.

Not all artists have a responsibility to be socially or politically aware, but they do have a responsibility to make great art. They have to find some truth and put that in their music.

I never liked socially conscious rap. I like rap that's physical, that's about a beat and bass and repetition.

Thinking about the artists I've loved through the years, my favorites are the ones who've made music with cultural, societal and political significance.

It's a lovely feeling, just working away at the desk, putting words down, building words up... I think you have to be aware that what you're doing is not just a private act, it's a societal thing.

I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.

Cinema is a reflection of its own society.

I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society, any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political.

Art reflects society. Cinema doesn't dictate - you portray what the society demands.

My films are a reflection of the society I live in, what I see and observe.

Our job as artists, we believe, is not to make changes in society. We don't have the ability to do that. We reflect life. We are the mirror of the society to look into. Our job is to raise questions, but we have no answers.

The role of art in society is not to resolve conflicts; rather, it is to express these conflicts and antagonisms.

Edith Piaf knocked my socks off when I was 8, but I didn't know what she was singing about.

I can't speak in too much detail about a book or story I'm working on because I find that it takes the energy out of my writing. When I begin to work, it's like a soda bottle that's been jostled before it's opened. There's a lot of pent up energy in there. I have to let it out slowly, carefully, so that I can turn it into a written work.

I'm a big fan of Edouard Vuillard, so I'd like anything by him - particularly a painting called 'Madame Hessel on the Sofa.' His work is realistic without being literal: I can really imagine what Madame Hessel is thinking.

Today my passion is still black and white. Today if I have an array of cameras in front of me the one I would reach for that I would feel most comfortable with would be a 4 X 5 View camera. I was once working in a sort of soft light situation.

I'm like soft Ray Manzarek. I think of the keyboard as almost like a bass or a lead.