Artist Quotes

God, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though--and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed.

~ David Foster Wallace

From the moment I held the box of colors in my hands, I knew this was my life. I threw myself into it like a beast that plunges towards the thing it loves.

~ Henri Matisse

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work.

~ Steven Pressfield

Bleed me of art, and there won't be enough liquid left in me to spit! [Michelangelo Buonorotti]

~ Irving Stone

The awakening an artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others.

~ Steven Pressfield

When you steal from an artist you are stealing their blood, sweat and tears.

~ Tyler Shields

The purpose of art is to give the traveling human race an improved map that shows the way to itself. If art isn't for *that*, what is it for?

~ William Saroyan

The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell.

~ Steven Pressfield

The advantage of having an artistic tradition is that the younger artist could see an organic link between the real life of one's country and its art work which is a sublimation of that life.

~ Kuo Pao Kun

When a man devotes himself body and spirit to a single object, if he has training and aptitude, no matter how mediocre he may be in ordinary affairs, he will produce something so nearly akin to a work of genius as to deceive half the judges who think themselves competent to decide between genius and talent.(The Phantom Model)

~ Hume Nisbet

An artist's concern is to capture beauty wherever he finds it.

~ Kazuo Ishiguro

Never be ashamed of madness, instead be ashamed of people that are ashamed of madness. Without a little bit of insanity, we would have never had the Theory of Relativity, electricity, airplanes, cars or your beloved iPhone. Madness got you that.

~ Shannon L. Alder

How are his poems?He's not as good as he thinks he is, but then most of us feel that way.

~ Charles Bukowski

I didn't do music to live, I lived so that I could do music.

~ Charlotte Eriksson

People listening to songs are like people reading novels: for a few minutes, for a few hours, someone else gets to come in and hijack that part of your brain that's always thinking. A good book or song kidnaps your interior voice and does all the driving. With the artist in charge you're free for a little while to leave your body and be someone else.

~ Douglas Coupland

Of an artistic temperament, I deny that I am; yet I must possess something of the artist's faculty of making the most of present pleasure.

~ Charlotte Brontë

As an artist, my talents are not mine alone to just keep. My creations have to touch lives, spread love and let my skills be used only in good things but should be selfless not through selfish motives. In this manner, I am giving the gift back to my Master Creator. - Elizabeth's Quotes

~ Elizabeth E. Castillo

The artistic disposition is little more than an extreme form of sulking.

~ Mark Simpson

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does, the better.

~ Yourleo

...if you're an artist, you've submitted to authority...

~ John Geddes

What makes an amazing artist? It's not his ability to impress but his skill in touching people's lives through his craft. When he does even a simple piece of work with not much adornment (fanciful words, colors) and it moves the hearts of his audience, it is considered to be a masterpiece! A true artist lets people enter a different kind of sanctuary out of the conventional. What makes his work standout is its uniqueness -if it has a HEART.

~ Elizabeth E. Castillo

Instead of chasing the idea of truth, what we should be doing is embracing the medium of drawing and using it for a purpose that fulfils our needs as an artist or designer.

~ Peter Stanyer

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.

~ Robert Henri

The soul of an artist cannot be muted indefinitely. It must either be expressed or it will consume the host.

~ Gerard De Marigny

It is the poet and philosopher who provide the community of objectives in which the artist participates. Their chief preoccupation, like the artist, is the expression in concrete form of their notions of reality. Like him, they deal with the verities of time and space, life and death, and the heights of exaltation as well as the depths of despair. The preoccupation with these eternal problems creates a common ground which transcends the disparity in the means used to achieve them.

~ Mark Rothko

‎But when I fell in love with black, it contained all color. It wasn’t a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors. Black is the most aristocratic color of all.... You can be quiet and it contains the whole thing. Happy birthday to Louise Nevelson (1899-1988)!

~ Louise Nevelson

Whether I'm painting or not, I have this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I'm not working, I'm still analyzing people.

~ Alice Neel

Not anyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.

~ Jan Pinkava Ratatouille

No. Not yet. A craftsman only. But I dream to be an artist. I pray that someday, if I work with enough care, if I am very very lucky, I will make a weapon that is a work of art. Call me an artist then, and I will answer.

~ William Goldman

People say 'I love Artists', but what they really know about Artists? They've ever thought about sharing the real madness with us? I believe those extreme passions/emotions in me separated from the real world is the sauce to pull out the inspirations out of me that touch the core of people's hearts, which is usually wandering about deep inside of you unconsciously covered with the social taboo called 'common sense'.

~ Hiroko Sakai

Art is ment to travel from your heart to your head and out through your fingers...

~ Kelly Bingham

Mediocrity is Death.

~ Suleman Abdullah

The more I drive myself into the depth of my inside, the more things come up to my vision, visibly or invisibly... I even do not know if I am seeing them with my eye or with my mind. I just need to copy them on my canvases. But this mental process is always overwhelming. I often have hard time to deal with my emotion on this state. You could call this depression on surface? But actually, so many 're-birth' and 'reform' are going on on my thoughts, inspiration, philosophy...etc in the underwater. I believe this struggle make my art real. My art always comes from my emotion.

~ Hiroko Sakai

In every motions to put colors on my canvas, I feel like I am screaming, I AM HERE... To whom?.. To where?... Where am I going to...?

~ Hiroko Sakai

Wherever I wander off to, when I draw, when I paint, I get my life back. I am lucky that I am an Artist.

~ Hiroko Sakai

A good artist should laugh often!

~ François Place

my problem is that my body acts before my brain thinks... it sometimes brings me huge trouble, or also huge success. recently, my body and brain got come to an agreement. it may be far better to live this gambling life than living in boring average ...they at least make my art more interesting

~ Hiroko Sakai

ONLY' having the Gift, people appreciate this madness as Art. Everybody wants to have Art in their lives, but no body wants to have what the Art came out from in their lives...

~ Hiroko Sakai

A true artist removes his heart willingly, allows constructive criticism to stomp it, then puts it back—bruised and aching—as he continues to strive for excellence due to the all-consuming obsession and love for his art.

~ H.g. Mewis

When a mad man found some certain way to express his insanity in original way, he would get promoted to be called an Artist.... Wait, are you talking about me?

~ Hiroko Sakai