Quotes About Art

Artists often become vocal advocates of freedom of expression because we depend on it so heavily in our work. But it is an inalienable right that belongs to everyone on an equal basis.

My vocal style is called bel canto, which is an old Italian vocal style going back hundreds of years.

I started dance class when I was a little kid, and then, when I turned 11, I started taking vocal lessons, guitar lessons, and piano lessons.

I was in art school, and we had all these random classes. We'd listen to a lot of Bollywood. I'd listen to Spanish music - and I don't even speak Spanish, but Hector Lavoe is amazing - we listened to French music like Edith Piaf. She's tight. I like cool vocal inflections; I like cool sounds. I pretty much listen to anything I think is good.

Poetry is a vocal art for me - but not necessarily a performative one. It might be reading to oneself or recalling some lines by memory.

I can't tell you how many things I've worked on where I sat on it for a few years, and then somebody else did something very similar. Whether it's some weird vocal effect you hear on another record, or a drum beat, or even a song title, a subject matter, or a mixture of different kinds of music.

In every song, there is a vocal element that doesn't have any words. I wanted to play around with how emotive and expressive my voice could be.

A banal poem is never more than a banal poem. A banal or trite lyric, however, can be - with the right vocal cords - brilliantly and shatteringly conveyed.

It's fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There's something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of creating music using only vocals.

I treat my vocals as an instrument.

Our bassist, Tim Staffell, was at art college with Frederick Bulsara, who changed his name to Freddie Mercury and joined the band on vocals after Tim left in 1970.

To me, dance is so ethereal and elusive, so much of an illusion. After a performance, that's it. With vocals and music, you have good recordings.

Radio or no radio, I just like the way records sound when the drums and vocals are loud.

The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart.

Poetry is a vocation. It is not a career but a calling.

Words are both my vocation and my avocation - reading, writing, editing, teaching.

I've always felt that if one was going to take seriously this vocation as an artist, you have to get beyond that decorative facade.

My first vocation was dance.

John Parsons, the gay art director at 'Vogue,' really started my career.

Confusion seems to have become the vogue of European directors.

I'm known for fashion photographs, but fashion photographs were mostly a joke for me. In 'Vogue,' girls were playing at being duchesses, but they were actually from Flatbush, Brooklyn. They would play duchesses, and I would play Cecil Beaton.

I started looking at fashion magazines, specifically 'British Vogue.' I was reading a lot about Cecil Beaton. Then I thought maybe I should start collecting.

I realize that protest paintings are not exactly in vogue, but I've done many.