Quotes About Art

I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears.

The making and doing of the image must persist, until the aesthetic ecstasy that demonstrates and proves the finality and wholeness of the image is fully and unambiguously evident.

Inspiration as the primary source of artistic creativity is no more than an attractive fiction, for spontaneity plays as relatively minor a role in art as it does in philosophical and scientific thinking.

To truly "learn" history means to open your eyes and discover the forces that cause historical events to happen. The art of reading and of learning means remembering the important parts and forgetting the unimportant.

Art and science were in German hands. Apart from the new artistic trash, which might easily have been produced by a negro tribe, all genuine artistic inspiration came from the German section of the population.

Alle, der ser og maler en grøn himmel og en blå kornmark, burde steriliseres.

The fact that nine-tenths of all the smutty literature, artistic tripe and theatrical banalities, had to be charged to the account of people who formed scarcely one per cent. of the nation - that fact could not be gainsaid. It was there, and had to be admitted.

The art of reading and studying consists in remembering the essentials and forgetting what is not essential.

The house has to please everyone, contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private matter for the artist. The house is not.

The work of art shows people new directions and thinks of the future. The house thinks of the present.

Does it follow that the house has nothing in common with art and is architecture not to be included in the arts? Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument. Everything else that fulfils a function is to be excluded from the domain of art.

The work of art still has something in common with enchantment: it posits its own, self-enclosed area, which is withdrawn from the context of profane existence, and in which special laws apply. Just as in the ceremony the magician first of all marked out the limits of the area where the sacred powers were to come into play, so every work of art describes its own circumference which closes it off from actuality.

It was a thought which made me reflect that though civilised man has spent untold treasure on preserving ancient buildings and works of art fashioned by the hand of man, yet he destroys these creatures which typify the perfection of agelessw beauty and grace.

It was a thought which made me reflect that though civilised man has spent untold treasure on preserving ancient buildings and works of art fashioned by the hand of man, yet he destroys these creatures which typify the perfection of ageless beauty and grace.

I saw an exhibition of paintings of alchemists once,' said Ruth. 'It used to be a popular setpiece. There was one I liked by Joseph Wright of Derby?of an alchemist who'd accidentally discovered phosphorus. He's just crouching there, staring in amazement at his test tube or alembic, or whatever you call it. A bloody good painting, actually.

Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first, then read it. Performance is more provocative.

Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.

Our faces will become works of art that our grandchildren will treasure.

Film is a time capsule. If I have a lack of dedication or focus, it's permanently there as a negative reminder.

There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist's relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist's concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.

Behind all art is an element of desire...Love of life, of existence, love of another human being, love of human beings is in some way behind all art — even the most angry, even the darkest, even the most grief-stricken, and even the most embittered art has that element somewhere behind it. Because how could you be so despairing, so embittered, if you had not had something you loved that you lost?

What kind of beast would turn its life into words?

One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.