Quotes About Art

A)rt is like bread, an essential ingredient for nourishing the soul.

To me there is no past or future in art. If a work of art cannot live always in the present it must not be considered at all. The art of the Greeks, of the Egyptians, of the great painters who lived in other times, is not an art of the past; perhaps it is more alive today that it ever was.

What is a face really? It's own photo? It's makeup? Or is it a face as painted by such or such painter? That which is in front? Inside? Behind? And the rest? Doesn't everyone look at himself in his own particular way? Deformations simply do not exist.

We all know that art is not truth. Art is the lie that makes us realise the truth

Los buenos artistas copian, los grandes roban.

To know what you're going to draw, you have to begin drawing. Picasso

Pour moi, peindre un tableau c'est engager une action dramatique au cours de laquelle la réalité se trouve déchirée. Ce drame l'emporte sur toute autre considération. L'acte plastique n'est que secondaire, en ce qui me concerne. Ce qui compte, c'est le drame de l'acte lui-même, le moment où l'univers s'échappe pour rencontrer sa propre destruction

Les bons artistes empruntent, les grands artistes volent.

Writers, of course, are obliged by our professions to spend much of our time going nowhere. Our creations come not when we're out in the world, gathering impressions, but when we're sitting still, turning those impressions into sentences. Our job, you could say, is to turn, through stillness, a life of movement into art. Sitting still is our workplace, sometimes our battlefield.

On sait à peu près pourquoi une Å"uvre est mauvaise. Mais bien moins pourquoi elle est bonne.

Myslím, že nejsem ani básník, ani spisovatel, ani umÄ›lec. Ale ?lovÄ›k, který nenaÅ¡el jiný zp?sob, jak z?stat ve styku s životem, jak se udržet nad hladinou. Psal jsem, jako se chytáme záchranného pásu.

Writing is the geometry of the soul.

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

There is also a third kind of madness, which is possession by the Muses, enters into a delicate and virgin soul, and there inspiring frenzy, awakens lyric....But he, who, not being inspired and having no touch of madness in his soul, comes to the door and thinks he will get into the temple by the help of art--he, I say, and his poetry are not admitted; the sane man is nowhere at all when he enters into rivalry with the madman.

Calligraphy is a geometry of the soul which manifests itself physically.

If anyone comes to the gates of poetry and expects to become an adequate poet by acquiring expert knowledge of the subject without the Muses' madness, he will fail, and his self-controlled verses will be eclipsed by the poetry of men who have been driven out of their minds.

A poet, you see, is a light thing, and winged and holy, and cannot compose before he gets inspiration and loses control of his senses and his reason has deserted him.

And I think that you must have observed again and again what a poor appearance the tales of poets make when stripped of the colours which music puts upon them, and recited in simple prose.

The Muse herself makes some men inspired, from whom a chain of other men is strung out who catch their own inspiration from theirs.

In which, if any, of these constitutions do we find the art of ruling being practiced in the actual government of men? What art is more difficult to learn? But what art is more important to us?

Oratory is the art of enchanting the soul, and therefore he who would be an orator has to learn the differences of human souls--they are so many and of such a nature, and from them come the differences between man and man.

If a painter, then, paints a picture of an ideally beautiful man, complete to the last detail, is he any the worse painter because he cannot show that such a man could really exist?

There seem to be two causes of the deterioration of the arts. What are they? Wealth, I said, and poverty. How do they act? The process is as follows: When a potter becomes rich, will he, think you, any longer take the same pains with his art? Certainly not. He will grow more and more indolent and careless? Very true. And the result will be that he becomes a worse potter? Yes; he greatly deteriorates.

Then the imitative poet who aims at being popular is not by nature made, nor is his art intended, to please or to affect the rational principle in the soul; but he will prefer the passionate and fitful temper, which is easily imitated? Clearly. And