Artist Quotes

When I was very, very young, seven years old, I heard there was school where you could go to learn to draw. That was my absolute driven passion, to become an artist or a painter. So the romantic realist in me, I studied to be a graphic design artist and an art teacher.

Ultimately, because I'm an artist, I can't ever consider myself a nihilist, so I suppose I'm optimistic.

But at a certain point, you have to take your influence and find your own voice if you want to become a relevant artist.

Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.

Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist.

I play piano and guitar and I do write my own stuff so to a certain extent I know what I want to do in regards to music. But I'm still finding out what kind of music is my favourite kind to listen to, never mind do myself so I've got a lot of time to find out myself and develop myself as an artist.

The great artist is a slave to his ideals.

A young and vital child knows no limit to his own will, and it is the only reality to him. It is not that he wants at the outset to fight other wills, but that they simply do not exist for him. Like the artist, he goes forth to the work of creation, gloriously alone.

It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work.

Is an artist much more than a beggar?

I never felt oppressed because of my gender. When I'm writing a poem or drawing, I'm not a female; I'm an artist.

Style is the most valuable asset of the modern artist. That's probably why so many styles are reported lost or stolen each year.

I've always seen myself as sort of this funky, eclectic artist.

No film critic's going to say it, but 'Madagascar 3' is better than 'The Artist.'

Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.

It's getting too late in my life to care about the small things. It's getting too late to not be brave, to not live my life fully, to not try to be an artist. Trivial things like how nice your hotel room is, or if you have to be naked for a while, they fade away.

It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.

I'm inspired by nature. Other artist's work is important for developing my perception.

To note an artist's limitations is but to define his talent. A reporter can write equally well about everything that is presented to his view, but a creative writer can do his best only with what lies within the range and character of his deepest sympathies.

I am tapping into a place in you that is unexplored, and very dangerous, but I think essential to the creative life of an artist.

When I go in front of an audience, I'll admit I sometimes have a certain amount of fear in me, because maybe the people are not going to accept what I'm doing today. That's bad for any artist, especially if what you're doing is not in line with what's happening today.

Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

I mean my point as an artist is I'm on my own little weird journey across the sky here and whether or not anybody's listening, or listening to the degree I would like them to, at the end of the day has to be an inconsequential thing because I can't chase this culture.

What kind of morons do you have working at newspapers in Austin that would base an entire review of an artist's performance on whether or not they had a good seat?

For us Africans, literature must serve a purpose: to expose, embarrass, and fight corruption and authoritarianism. It is understandable why the African artist is utilitarian.

Law breaking, graffiti artist, dumb jock that I am, I'm pretty socially conscious.

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

Louis Malle was the best filmmaker I've ever worked with. He was such an artist. He was dealing with the theme of innocence and experience.

As an artist you have to have a certain amount of arrogance.

Yeah, I really like being alive. But I definitely don't have any intentions as an artist.