Artist Quotes

The true gourmet, like the true artist, is one of the unhappiest creatures existent. His trouble comes from so seldom finding what he constantly seeks: perfection.

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas.

The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.

Well, in order for me to be successful... In order to be a great artist - musician, actor, painter, whatever - you must be able to be private in public at all times.

Right now as an artist, what I want to do is be a part of works that are unignorable. I couldn't be less interested in how people receive it, honestly. As long as it's unignorable.

I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't much to draw at sea. So I began writing, and I began reading a lot.

In 20 years I had sold more records for RCA than any artist except Elvis Presley.

All the time I'm changing as an artist and as a person.

I just want to make one really good movie a year. And when I die, to know I was honest as an artist.

The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.

The idea of being a painter, I've always thought, is better than being an artist or a sculptor.

I wasn't allowed to grow as an artist. My albums were nicer to look at than to listen to.

I strongly suggest that we play down basics like who influenced whom, and instead study the way the influence is transformed, in other words: how the artist made it his own.

I so much appreciate it when anybody tries to make something and tries to be an artist - I'm happy to see the work.

I tell my friends about my conversations with my father - conversations with an artist.

To restrict the artist is a crime. It is to murder germinating life.

I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.

That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.

I wear a lot of different hats - from writer to producer and artist. We all do 5 or 6 jobs, everything from creating our own graphic design to actually recording and the whole bit.

I am an artist, art has no color and no sex.

My work as an artist is completely separate from my work as a philanthropist.

An artist needn't be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.

An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.

Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering.

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.

It is said that no star is a heroine to her makeup artist.

The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure.

With the song 'This Christmas' I wanted to do something that was kind of different. I mean, Donny Hathaway is an amazing artist. So I wanted to bring my flavor to the song so when people over the age of 45 or 50 hear it they'll be like 'OK, he did his thing with that record.' It's like I can appeal to everybody and not just a younger demographic.

I guess I created LeRoy Neiman. Nobody else told me how to do it. Well, I'm a believer in the theory that the artist is as important as his work.

Coming to understand a painting or a symphony in an unfamiliar style, to recognize the work of an artist or school, to see or hear in new ways, is as cognitive an achievement as learning to read or write or add.