Quotes About Art

A movie grants a visa. A book makes you a citizen.

Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

Entertainment alleviates the fear of life, but art vanquishes the fear of death

True Artistic Freedom is in Having No Desire Of Rewards

The "result" of life is death, so when you create, the importance is not on the result but on the process of creating in and of itself.

Van Gogh would have to cut his cock off to make an impression nowadays

Perfection in art is a crime against humanity. Perfect humanity in crime is art

Artist Matthew Barney has made a film about "shit". It is hardly original. Hollywood has made shit films for decades.

The fictitious kleptomaniac's only crime was stealing imaginations

Art is the only buffer against the ravages of time

When you 'own' a work of art it immediately loses its value

When you take The Creator out of the picture, you are left without a frame

One of the best ways to recharge is by simply being in the presence of art. No thoughts, no critiques. Just full-on absorption mode.

Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change... Engineers operate at the interface between science and society...

The best thing I ever learned from my dad was he knew he wasn't the best of singers, but he always knew he was a great entertainer, and I always thought that was a good concept to bring along, that ultimately acting is an entertainment art and you have to be aware of the fact that you want people to be excited to be watching you.

English teachers, workshops, and myths try to make writers slow down. We are the ONLY ART on the planet that tells young artists to not practice and do less to get better. Head-shaking in its stupidity. And new writers buy into that.

Gogh. The Woman in the Wood. Caravaggio. The Gorgon Tisiphone. Bruegel. The Plague Doctor.

Shepherdess of the Sphinxes by Leonor Fini.

Heaven help us if we are not better observers than the police," I retorted. "We are scientists, trained in the art of observation," I reminded him. "So what do we observe here?" He sighed,

You don't believe the public should have access to the accumulation of human knowledge? To the accomplishment of art and exploration?

That is the essence of painting, child. To capture something utterly temporary and conjure permanence.

Small talk is an art in the Michigan U.P., since most things that happen here are small. Long silences are okay, too. Most of what's said will be said again tomorrow. The weather, gardening, and the no-good federal government are all good topics, interspersed with pauses and throat clearings. It's our way of life.

To an untrained eye, need and love were as easily mistaken for each other as the real master's painting and a forgery.

At the root of every large struggle in life is the need to be honest about something that we do not feel we can be honest about. We lie to ourselves or other people because the truth might require action on our part, and action requires courage. We say we "don't know" what is wrong, when we do know what is wrong; we just wish we didn't. Art lets us tell the truth, but even art can be something to hide behind.