Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“One from the Heart for... My wife Pat, my number one critic, who also suffered safely through all those long decades of my taking notes, thinking and figuring on Bluefeather Fellini, and then the five and a half years of actually writing it down. ...Also, much appreciation for the painting you created for the cover.”
Max Evans (author) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bluefeather Fellini (1993)
“What is spoken of as a clinical picture is not just a photograph of a sick man in bed; it is an impressionistic painting of the patient surrounded by his home, his work, his relations, his friends, his joys, sorrows, hopes and fears. Now all of this background of sickness which bears so strongly on the symptomatology is liable to be lost sight of in the hospital.”
Francis Peabody (1881–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love the freedom of creation, which (I hope) is visible in my works, and only one who has enough knowledge can afford freedom. You can not deal with high mathematics if you have not mastered the basics, adding up and subtracting, so it's about something similar with painting.”
Alfred Freddy Krupa (born 1971) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Culture depends on the situation in the country, Alfred Freddy Krupa, Karlovački list (Karlovac Daily Newspaper), 2000
“You’re not just voting for a woman if it’s Hillary because she’s a woman, but certainly because Trump has made it easy to see that you don’t really want that kind of world that he’s painting.”
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone was saying that painting was dead, and really believing it. It was a very difficult time for me. I felt unsupported and isolated…”
Celia Paul (born 1959) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On continuing to paint during the 1990s in “Celia Paul by Hilton Als” in BOMB Magazine (2015 Dec 21)
“Whether they're drinking wine in the evening or painting something "offensive," Iranians choose not to dwell on the fact that they could receive some seventh-century punishment. Laws are inconsistently enforced, and you can usually pay off police to look the other way.”
Azadeh Moaveni (born 1973) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On existing in an Islamic regime as portrayed in her book Honeymoon in Tehran in “Knocked Up in Iran” in Marie Claire (2009 Feb 12)
“Painting is a way for me to view the world as it exists and the world as it might be.”
Brian Clarke (1953–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writing from bed is a time-honored disabled way of being an activist and a cultural worker. It's one the mainstream doesn't often acknowledge but whose lineage stretches from Frida Kahlo painting in bed to Grace Lee Boggs writing in her wheelchair at age 98.”
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The use of color in my paintings is of paramount importance to me. Through color I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness in my painting rather than on man's inhumanity to man.(...) My goal was not to offend the beauty in nature, but rather to share with others those aspects of it that have given me so much joy.”
Alma Thomas (1891–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It happens in every marriage. My husband, whom I adored, wanted me to be more like how he wanted me to be. But I have too much of an independent personality. I’d be off painting and he wanted me to be more of a housewife…In Hollywood, they think they want you, but really they want what they want you to be.”
Kim Novak (born 1933) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On feeling like she is expected to fulfill an image in “‘I had to leave Hollywood to save myself’: Kim Novak on art, bipolar, Hitchcock and happiness” in The Guardian (2021 Feb 15)
“You know, I wasn't gonna wait around. And I thought, 'You know, what I'd like to do if I have my choice, I wanna go to Big Sur and go back to painting.' For better or worse, I left Hollywood. I let in very few people in my life, and I got involved with animals in my life. And not just cats and dogs. I had to learn who I was again through animals, because animals know who you really are.”
“I don’t really the count hours I put into my paintings, to be quite honest. I suspect I might be surprised at how many it takes for an average artwork, because before I even begin painting I’ll tend to ‘lose myself’ in making the drawings and corrections and variations involved in the preliminary stage.”
Ted Nasmith (born 1956) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ted Nasmith (April 25, 2012)
“There is no greater pleasure for me than to have someone see a painting or a sketch of mine and say to me “yes, that’s exactly how I always pictured it!.”
Jef Murray (1960–2015) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Interview with Jef Murray (September 12, 2014)
“She was gone into the mass of thousands of worshipers painting white tilaks on their foreheads and purifying themselves with Puja as they recited sutras over candles and milk with coconut shells. I walked on, with a sorrow that time has never extinguished.”
William Leonard Pickard (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am best known for painting scary pictures, but I’m not into scary that much, yeah, that’s completely ironic.”
Tim Jacobus (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Patience is the only honest muse. In writing, in painting, and especially in photography.”
Scott Crary (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Come on. Let’s go! We’re all part of this (expletive) history 2021! (expletive) This is insanity. I am shook. What is this? What is this painting, you know? King (expletive) bro (expletive)! Is this not going to be the best film you’ve ever made in your life? This is surreal. This is real life, though. This seems like a movie. This is a revolution. You guys treasure this moment. This is history.”
John Earle Sullivan (born 1994) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 6 January 2021
“This cosmic character of Salvatore Garau's figurative world, this emotionalized universalism links his aesthetics with the tradition of romanticism, especially of romantic landscape painting, in which imposing natural phenomena are interpreted as a metaphor for the cosmos and the metaphysical hierarchy of existence.”
Lóránd Hegyi (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We went on a school trip down the Rhine one summer and I saw a crucifixion that made all others pale for me. It was a painting. And it was the first thing like that which had any effect on me. I stood and stared at it for so long the teachers lost me and had to come back for me.”
Bernard MacLaverty (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Women must become enlightened or educated, because being enlightened encompasses all the fields of human science: Physiology, Geology, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Engineering, Agriculture, Geometry, History, Music, and Painting...Education is a beautiful and necessary thing.”
Luisa Capetillo (1879–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm still a painter. I consider myself a painter who uses poetry as a different way of painting. It wasn't until I was in college that I started experimenting with words and language.”
Sandra María Esteves (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How he hated gardening. "Mother Nature is a psychopath," he'd told Michelle, "and I won't spend my weekends on my hands and knees, painting her toenails.”
Ali Shaw (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting is human, too human.”
Mario Schifano (1934–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mario Schifano dipingere è umano, troppo umano, in Comunione e liberazione (6 March 2012)
“Painting is my way of existing.”
Mario Schifano (1934–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mario Schifano dipingere è umano, troppo umano, in Comunione e liberazione (6 March 2012)
“The ideas are contemporary to the gesture, I immediately spit them on the painting.”
Mario Schifano (1934–1998) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Schifano degli Scandali, in Repubblica (January 27, 1998)
“A poem, a symphony, a painting, a mathematical truth, a new scientific fact, all bear in themselves all the justification that universities, colleges, and institutes of research need or require.”
Abraham Flexner (1866–1959) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Flexner, Abraham, The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. Harper’s Magazine. Issue 179, June / November 1939, p. 550.
“I had just found a way to paint without painting.”
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Music and painting bandaged soul-holes.”
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The machine that I created is simple, costs virtually nothing to maintain, and only requires being kept clean, protected from rust and dust. … This is not all: the fabric is created with speed and perfection, the designs go with the warp of the thread, and the outlines are imperceptible and blended, like in painting.”
Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752–1834) first seen 1809 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Notice on the inventions and improvements introduced in the industry of Lyon by Joseph Jacquard since January 1, 1809 until today (French: Notice sur les inventions, et perfectionnement introduit dans l'industrie de Lyo…
“We were poor, but we were happy. We didn’t have much, but we were painting.”
Alfredo Arreguín (1935–2023) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview (2001)
“I was not good at painting so I thought I should try sculpture, as I liked putting my hand in my work. It is totally natural for me to make the work myself.”
Sokari Douglas Camp (born 1958) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Karen Wright, Sokari Douglas Camp, sculptor: 'I was not good at painting so I tried sculpture, as I liked putting my hand in my work', Independent, 16 April 2015.
“While the outcry raised by the audacious polemic of Bartolini spread throughout Italy, as he dared to slap the pseudo-classicists to the point of introducing a hunchback as a model into the school; Romanticism arose against classical painting, initially confined to a few aspects, then overwhelming everything: in themes, in attitudes, in colour. (p. 340)”
Salomon Reinach (1858–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I started embroidering on watercolor paper – black on white at first,” but inspired by a black-on-black painting she’d seen in a show in Nashville, “I began to coat wood panels in graphite, drilled holes with my jewelry tools, and embroidered in white. I am in love with graphite because it can be perfectly matte all the way to reflectively shiny.”
Jennifer Moss (1945–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One strong motivation [for painting portraits] has been wanting to portray Black people in all the beauty that I see in them...I take a lot of joy in that.”
“When I was fifteen like Andy, I found poetry and maths hugely therapeutic. They were my canvases for spray-painting my rioting emotions, angst, hopelessness, daily frustrations, my spaceships for momentary escapes. They were amazing tools for scrutinising and unravelling myself.”
Stephen Buoro (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some want painting to "amuse" them; it was not to improvise fairground attractions that X-rays were discovered.”
Charles Picart Le Doux (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting doesn't have to be crazy to be good.”
Charles Picart Le Doux (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To seduce most writers, painting must be literary, that is to say, on the borders of the bad.”
Charles Picart Le Doux (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painters know what painting really is, but few admit it.”
Charles Picart Le Doux (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Each painter really loves only one painting, the one he would like to make.”
Charles Picart Le Doux (1881–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who hasn’t been to a museum somewhere in the world and saw a painting that reflects a popular belief? Who hasn’t read a popular novel that highlights a culture’s legacy?”
Reem al-Kamali (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is now a shift in tactics, since outright street protest have become dangerous and, she says, “almost suicidal.” There’s been a renewed emphasis on media exposure and grass roots activities like regular “I am an Egyptian citizen” events, where young people visit slums and villages and speak about human rights issues while painting walls, picking up garbage or fixing train signals.”
Hala Shukrallah (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some two or three months after I arrived in prison [in 1959], I felt a desire to paint and with it came a refusal to surrender to the status quo…I would go up to the roof of the building to paint anything I could find, eventually painting the inmates.”
Inji Aflatoun (1924–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The profile of the painting is completed by the scientist who, using appropriate tools, will examine the surface craquelure (the network of cracks in the paint or varnish) as well as its fluorescence properties, analyze the underdrawings, determine the nature of the pigments and binding materials, date the canvas, and also date the frame.”
Jehane Ragai (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the past 20 years I have been deconstructing 'the nude' through drawing, painting and collage. Collage is a perfect medium for reappropriating and juxtaposing images from many sources and rearranging them as personal metaphors, analogies and ambiguities.”
Pat Hillcoat (1935–2022) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Canberra Times article by Sonia Barron - Demeaning of women portrayed, p. 47 - 9 July 1994 - Archive
“If someone pushes me into a place that isn't right for me, like labeling me and asking me what genre I'm painting in, I'll also get angry and say, 'What are you trying to put me in a box? I'm not willing to be there.'”
Beverly Barkat (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Painting doesn't freeze time. It circulates and recycles time like a wheel that turns. Those who were first might well be last.”
Marlene Dumas (born 1953) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Marlene Dumas Biography, Life & Quotes". The Art Story. Retrieved 22 March 2025.
“No painting can exist without the tension of what it figures and what it concretely consists of the pleasure of what it could mean and the pain of what it's not.”
Marlene Dumas (born 1953) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kazakina, Katya (8 December 2023). "Zwirner Reports a $9 Million Marlene Dumas Sale. That Has People Talking For Two Reasons". Artnet News. Retrieved 22 March 2025.
“I do not want to be remembered for this, “I would like to be remembered for having done at least one good painting in my life.”
Marlene Dumas (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cashdan, Marina (23 September 2016). "Esther Mahlangu Is Keeping Africa's Ndebele Painting Alive". Artsy. Retrieved 24 March 2025.”
Esther Mahlangu (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source