Quotes About Art

Why should poetry have to make sense?

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.

There are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books.

To me theatricalism means dramatic embellishment: the art of the aposiopesis; the abrupt closing of a book; the lighting of a cigarette; the effects off-stage, a pistol shot, a cry, a fall, a crash; an effective entrance, an effective exit – all of which may seem cheap and obvious, but if treated sensitively and with discretion, they are the poetry of the theatre.

When I realize how distorted even recent events have become, history as such only arouses my scepticism. Whereas a poetic interpretation achieves a general effect of the period. After all, there are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books.

We're here to bring beauty to the world and make a difference in this planet. That's what art forms are about.

What galleries and museums have to do with a dead man is beyond me. Writing about shit like that in the city we were living in seemed equal to writing about the surf conditions while reporting in the Gaza Strip.

If we were poets, we'd starve on words.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you that music has boundaries. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.

We're going to shoot one Polaroid per show. I'm going to sign this before it even develops because I know that once it develops with my signature on it, it's worth a fortune. I'll make this a work of magic warlock art.

To create is to defy emptiness. It is generous, it affirms. To make is to add to the world, not subtract from it.

The trouble with movies as a business is that it's an art, and the trouble with movies as art is that it's a business.

What I look for when I see a piece of art for the first time is some kind of emotional, intellectual experience, that's a combination of both of those things and is informed by my knowledge and something new that I see the artist doing.

Art goes into the world unarmed, vulnerable to every quirk of fate, and it must survive only by its power to move men not to destroy it.

For someone who likes tattoos, the most precious thing is bare skin.

Bad, quirky poetry might be better than some of the good stuff, because it really comes from the heart.

Art isn't anecdote. It's the consciousness we bring to bear in our lives.

I chose Van Gogh.

It isn't enough to have had an interesting or hilarious or tragic life. Art isn't anecdote. It's the consciousness we bring to bear on our lives. For what happened in the story to transcend the limits of the personal, it must be driven by the engine of what the story means.

When we see a painting that we love, we're not standing there thinking about the artist who made it — we're thinking about how that painting makes us feel, what that reflects to us about our lives and the world. And so I love when love exceeds … its creator, which is the whole goal of art…; when it becomes not about the person who created it, but about the people who consume it…