Quotes About Art

It makes me nuts, the idea that if you put a political struggle at the heart of your book, then it has to be that the author - me - is trying in some way to push my views onto my readers.

It is a commonplace to say that novelists should be judged by their work rather than their private lives or their publicly expressed views. And writers, of course, subscribe enthusiastically to this idea.

I always wanted to make films that might change or at least focus people's views.

I admit clearly and frankly that early Mexican art formed my views of carving as much as anything I could do.

Since I am an actress and not a social activist, cinema is the best medium for me to state my views.

The arts are tremendously powerful in bringing people with opposing views together.

Dissent in art is a fundamental right. But if it is dissent about a book, a piece of art, and if you don't like it, you have the right to express your views outside the theatre, but you cannot create a law and order situation. Then the state has to step in.

American music has infiltrated the entire world enough as it is. Mexican music must be defended with vigilance.

We accept so many things that come through the media; we get used to them, however vigilant we are. But for any creative art, you have to remain 110% conscious, and in a world that's losing consciousness, that's getting harder.

It's important to be vigilant at all stages of the making of a film. The theme of a work should be represented properly.

The growth of art seems to be in cycles, and often its vigorous lifetime is restricted to a century or two. The periods of distinctive drama, Greek, English, Spanish, fall within such a limit; the schools of painting and sculpture likewise; and, in poetry, the Victorian age or the school of Pope will serve as examples.

It may be fine for an artist to be indifferent to the reaction of the viewer to a work of art. A vigorous debate on issues is also beneficial. But the dark vision of a world without truth cannot be our future.

Reggae is vile.

Arcadia' was started and finished at the Medici villa in Rome.

I love the East Village.

Franz Kline, who became known for his black and white paintings, did a whole series of gorgeous landscapes and wonderful portraits that may still hang in Greenwich Village.

Yes, in my books I do edit myself to keep from becoming the Village Explainer.

My art teacher in junior high was a very out gay man and a mentor to me. He would tell us about Greenwich Village and show us the 'Village Voice' and describe his life, but it was all sort of subversive and below the radar.

I went to an art school in Brooklyn and painted Fine Art, if that's what you'd call it for eight years in New York, until I saw the first underground comics in the East Village Other.

On my show 'One on One', I interview leaders from around the world - in politics, business, art. My other show, 'Her Village', is more like 'The View'.

My father came to Chennai at the age of 16 from a village in Coimbatore. He was an artist and was clear he wanted to do something, so he came to Chennai and joined an art course for eight years before he came into films.

I saw the Village as a place you could escape to, to express yourself. When I first went there, I wrote and performed poetry. Then I drew portraits for a couple of years. It took a while before I thought about picking up a guitar.

India is a land of plenty inhibited by poverty; India has an enthralling, uplifting civilization that sparkles not only in our magnificent art, but also in the enormous creativity and humanity of our daily life in city and village.

I wish it was possible to do the work and not have to talk about it, but it is traditional in the theater to go into the village square and bang the drum and say, 'Come see this show, come see this show.'