Art Quotes

Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.

~ Diego Rivera

No one gets up after death-there is no applause-there is only silence and some second-hand clothes, and that's death.

~ Tom Stoppard

The journey of the sun and moon is predictable. But yours, is your ultimate art.

~ Suzy Kassem

But this was the first occasion I had come across someone for whom art was a means of avoiding reality rather than confronting it head on, an idea so strange to me that I didn't fully comprehend it at the time.

~ Deirdre Madden

We possess art lest we perish of the truth.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Picasso said that art is a lie, but a lie that tells the truth ... Calder wondered what Picasso had meant. Was it that art wasn't exactly the real world, but it said something real?

~ Blue Balliett

As an artist, her imagination isn't fettered by the constraints of reality.

~ Sarah Cross

Let Art be your weapon, and you would never be defeated.

~ Bam Zakariya

Actions speak louder than words, in fact. When we don't take action, we foster the mistaken reality of our old identity.

~ Eric Samuel Timm

General belief is “There is no real magic, only tricks” but a great magician compel people not to trust that belief and make them believe, after all There does exist a real magic.

~ Amit Kalantri

Life is like butter - when things cool down it can be reshaped

~ Alan Sheinwald

The critic is to art what the limp penis is to sex.

~ Steve Maraboli

So much has been done to my body, and still, somehow, not enough.

~ Jennifer Elisabeth

I tried to push my body through his and completely disappear.

~ Jennifer Elisabeth

He had violent passions, and on occasion desire seized his body so that he was driven to an orgy of lust, but he hated the instincts that robbed him of his self-possession. I think, even, he hated the inevitable partner in his debauchery. When he had regained command over himself, he shuddered at the sight of the woman he had enjoyed. His thoughts floated then serenely in the empyrean, and he felt towards her the horror that perhaps the painted butterfly, hovering about the flowers, feels to the filthy chrysalis from which it has triumphantly emerged. I suppose that art is a manifestation of the sexual instinct. It is the same emotion which is excited in the human heart by the sight of a lovely woman, the Bay of Naples under the yellow moon, and the Entombment of Titian. It is possible that Strickland hated the normal release of sex because it seemed to him brutal by comparison with the satisfaction of artistic creation.

~ W. Somerset Maugham

Sex is an art, those who know better are the better artists.

~ M.f. Moonzajer

And in fact the artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different forms of one and the same longing and bliss. And if instead of heat one could say sex;- sex in the great, pure sense of the word, free of any sin attached to it by the Church, - then his art would be very great and infinitely important. His poetic power is great and as strong as a primal instinct; it has its own relentless rhythms in itself and explodes from him like a volcano.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

I grew up watching my father make plates that featured penises as centerpieces. Pink, proud, and stiff, encircled by cerulean Greek key, Dad’s creations made me feel scared and small. I saw a private part of the man I could not measure up to. At six years old, I lived in a world shaded by his ceramic glazes. There was love and color, but anger, too, in the way he kneaded his clay, palms pounding the rich, wet earth into shapes of his choosing.

~ Royal Young

If you feel joy when you do something unselfish for him, and would just as soon do it in secret as openly, then that rings of the true metal

~ Susan Vreeland

Fresh, solid ideas feel like gifts to writers, therefore every morning is Christmas.

~ Criss Jami

My art is an act of creation and destruction, with all the sorrow and joy these engender as well as all the shadow and light these contain.

~ Kathryn V. White

Henry had written a novel because there was a hole in him that needed filling, a question that needed answering, a patch of canvas that needed painting—that blend of anxiety, curiosity and joy that is at the origin of art—and he had filled the hole, answered the question, splashed colour on the canvas, all done for himself, because he had to. Then complete strangers told him that his book had filled a hole in them, had answered a question, had brought colour to their lives. The comfort of strangers, be it a smile, a pat on the shoulder or a word of praise, is truly a comfort.

~ Yann Martel

Sadly, many storytellers and artists are still addicted to the old delusions (happy is boring, evil is interesting) about the risks of good mental health. Even those who don’t view peace of mind as a threat to their creative power often believe that it’s a rare commodity attained through dumb luck….It’s possible to define a more supple variety of happiness that does not paralyze the will or sap ambition….the number one trait of happy people is a serious determination to be happy. Bliss is a habit you can cultivate, in other words, not an accident.

~ Rob Brezsny

His music gave no lesser joy than a vacation. Creativity in his music and its success stood out as an example to all kinds of artists, in the lectures of business speakers, engineers, and to anyone who built or constructed something in their respective profession.

~ Amit Kalantri

Any training is initially difficult, but with persistence practice, we can master the art.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

You know you possess the soul of an artist when, each time you sit down to create, the whole universe lays itself at your feet.

~ Eric Micha'el Leventhal

Enjoy the brush strokes of life and try not to worry about filling the canvas.

~ Todd Bricker

Look man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.

~ David Foster Wallace

It’s hard for me to talk about love,' she said. 'I think movies are the way I do that.

~ Anna North

Poetry is a tool for writers to create literature in different forms of expression and messages.

~ Vanessa M. Chattman

I want art that makes the world seem more unreal. I want fiction that can crumble the world and build it back into something new.

~ Lincoln Michel

..giving power to negative thoughts or fears was bringing ideas to life in physical world,idea in mind became emotion in heart,emotion turned into words spoken,written,painted,strummed across guitar strings,or vibrantly held note by Tibetan singing bowl, thoughts affected physical world.

~ Christina Westover

..home INSIDE is home shining brightly above all homes in physical world.

~ Christina Westover

Energy manipulation took place completely in mind,same way believing in telepathy caused telepathic abilities to grow STRONGER.

~ Christina Westover

I never look at a painting and ask, Is this painting fictional or non-fictional? It's just a painting.

~ Scott Mcclanahan

Great fiction is the art of a soul.

~ Douglas Christiansen

You can't make a fan of everyone. Stay true to your story, characters, music, art or whatever it is you do and fuck everyone else who doesn't like it. Life isn't perfect.

~ Ann Marie Frohoff

To be inspired is great, but to inspire is an honor.

~ Stacey T. Hunt

But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author of a novel has some special insight into the characters in the novel...it's ridiculous. That novel was composed of scratches on a page, dear. The characters inhabiting it have no life outside of those scratches. What happened to them? They all ceased to exist the moment the novel ended.

~ John Green

They were rebellious through their artistic expression and their uplifting spirits

~ Evan Meekins