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Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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Art

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• “Just thought and thought! Poor artist of the word!High priest of thought! You cannot flee;The word holds all: the world and man,Death, life, and ever-unveiled truth. (1840)”

  Evgeny Baratynsky (1800–1844) said by 1844 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry, Northwestern University (2001)

• “Being an artist means seeing things and never having the ability to shut your eyes.”

  Keariene Muizz (born 1977) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Associated Press (2008); from an interview conducted by John Rogers.

• “I am an artist, I trade in uncertainty and superstition and cant. I invent dark visions of impossible situations that can never be resolved.”

  Ralph Steadman (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The word "artist" means man unless qualified by the category "woman.”

  Whitney Chadwick (1943–2026) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Women, Art, and Society: Fourth Edition (2007)

• “As an artist you have to fight and survive the wilderness to keep your creative freedom. Creativity is very fragile. It's like a leaf in the fall; it hangs and when it drops you don't know where it's drifting.”

  Karel Appel (1921–2006) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: p. 91 'Quotes', K. Appel (1989)

• “Thick rumors of imminent peace are in the air.. .Big spectacle with six or seven British tanks. In the afternoon, they played war once more at the Palaisplein [near Dam square in Amsterdam center] and at the Rokin [street where Beckmann lived for 8 years, as 'entartete' German artist under German occupation; The Netherlands was liberated by the Allies, 5 May 1945].”

  Max Beckmann (1884–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In Max Beckmann, , Bonfini Press Corporation, Naefels, Switzerland, 1983, p. 80

• “To the Young Artists of Italy! The cry of rebellion that we launch, linking our ideals with those of the Futurist poets, does not originate in an aesthetic clique. It expresses the violent desire that stirs in the veins of every creative artist today.”

  Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Simple, I don't like the word simple. I like easy better. I want to forget about the technique. I sweat and worry but I don't want it look like that; but you can’t separate the artist and his technique.”

  Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In an interview by Henry Geldzahler, 'Art International 1.', February 1964, p. 48

• “I'm not really a collage artist like Quentin Tarantino or Wes Anderson. I'm not like those other guys, Spike Jonze, too, guys who watch things and take notes. I'm trapped in my own stubborn world over-and-over, looking for a similar insight, a similar aesthetic, a similar point of view.”

  Vincent Gallo (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

  Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.”

  Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Last Essay: "1967

• “They are always asking a writer why he does not write like somebody else, or a painter why he does not paint like somebody else, quite oblivious of the fact that if either of them did anything of the kind he would cease to be an artist.”

  Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To understand a saint, you must hear the devil's advocate; and the same is true of the artist.”

  George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1908 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Sanity of Art: An Exposure of the Current Nonsense about Artists being Degenerate (1908)

• “Every artist was first an amateur.”

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.”

  James A. Michener (1907–1997) first seen 1985 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "The Michener Phenomenon" by Caryn James in The New York Times (8 September 1985)

• “The artist reconstructs the world to his plan.”

  Albert Camus (1913–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.”

  Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: A Theory of Human Motivation", in Psychological Review, vol. 50, no. 4 (1943), p. 382

• “I found a very liberating position for myself, as an artist… and that was: I sort ofgave up on the human race, I gave up on the American dream and culture and decided that I didn’t care about the outcome.”

  George Carlin (1937–2008) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy (HBO, 1997)

• “Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live.”

  Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, was published in LIFE magazine two days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972)

• “There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.”

  Émile Zola (1840–1902) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Paul Cézanne (16 April 1860), as published in John Rewald (ed.) Paul Cézanne: Letters (1995)

• “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you: I am here to live out loud!”

  Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in Jon Winokur, Writers on Writing‎ (1986)

• “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

  Émile Zola (1840–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in Larry Chang, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing‎ (2006) p. 55

• “Perhaps the artist is nothing more than the personification of this universal maladjustment, this universal disequilibrium.”

  Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The artist who becomes thoroughly aware consequently ceases to be one.”

  Henry Miller (1891–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Variation does not mean evolution. If an artist varies his mode of expression this only means that he has changed his manner of thinking, and in changing, it might be for the better or it might be for the worse.”

  Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It is not what the artist does that counts. But what he is. Cézanne would never have interested me if he had lived and thought like Jaques-Emile Blanche, even if the apple he had painted had been ten times more beautiful. What interests us is the anxiety of Cézanne, the teaching of Cézanne, the anguish of Van Gogh, in short the inner drama of the man. The rest is false. [Boisgeloup, winter 1934].”

  Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Richard Friedenthal, (1963, p. 259)

• “The artist is a receptacle for emotions derived from anywhere: from the sky, from the earth, from a piece of paper, from a passing figure, from a spider’s web. This is a spider's web. This is why one must not make a distinction between things. For them there are no aristocratic quarterings. One must take things where one finds them.”

  Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 258 (translation Daphne Woodward)

• “It's like God's. God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.”

  Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Picasso quoted in 'TIME'; quoted in: The Atlantic, Vol. 214 (1964), p. 97.

• “O stern proconsul of intractable provinces, O poet of the difficult, dear addicted artist.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) first seen 1930 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: At the Grave of Henry James", st. 5. Collected Shorter Poems, 1930–1944 (1950) pt. 1

• “Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist.”

  W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “One becomes a critic when one cannot be an artist, just as a man becomes a stool pigeon when he cannot be a soldier.”

  Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 22 October 1846

• “The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him.”

  Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) first seen 1857 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 18 March 1857

• “If the artist did not know his goal, even the most miraculous of tools could not find it for him.”

  Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He knew something of the emotion the artist must feel when his dreams become reality.”

  Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You won’t be an artist if you live a thousand years. You’re merely an expert, and you know it. Those who can—do, those who can’t—criticise.”

  Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “As an artist, you're never happy with anything you do. It's part of the process. You're never really happy. I'm certainly not. That's a good thing. It means you're always striving to do better. You hope the next piece will be better.”

  Kate Bush (born 1958) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "In conversation with Kate Bush" by Elio Iannacci in MacLeans (28 November 2016)

• “An artist will betray himself by some sort of sincerity.”

  G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.”

  T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Every artist must have two fears -- the fear of God and the fear of man -- fear of God that his creation will ultimately be found unworthy and the fear of man that he will be misunderstood by his fellows.”

  Robert Frost (1874–1963) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Before an audience of young writers gathered under Bread Loaf Mountains at Middlebury, Vermont. As quoted in the following source: Associated Press (30 January 1963). "Robert Frost Dies at 88; Kennedy Leads in Tribute".…

• “The artist must imitate that which is within the thing, that which is active through form and figure, and discourses to us by symbols.”

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Very luckily for you and me,the uncivilized sun mysteriously shines on "good" and "bad" alike. He is an artist.”

  E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Foreword to an Exhibit: I" (1944)

• “Emigravit is the inscription on the tomb-stone where he lies; Dead he is not, but departed, — for the artist never dies.”

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Nuremburg (1846).

• “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his picture.”

  Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I had rather be called a journalist than an artist.”

  H. G. Wells (1866–1946) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to author Henry James (8 July 1915)

• “But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old artist's readiness to dissolve characters into a haze. Characters cannot come alive and fight and guide the world unless the novelist wants them to remain characters.”

  E. M. Forster (1879–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him.”

  C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.”

  Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald (13 September 1929); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker

• “Let a politician die, and his worst enemies will stand up on the floor of the House and utter pious lies in his honour, but a writer or artist must be sniffed at, at least if he is any good.”

  George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I was working on this movie and the makeup artist was just so ugly! I just wanted to say "Physician, heal thyself!" She looked exactly like Aaron Neville, and she was trying her hardest to make me look exactly like Aaron Neville. This one time, she leaned into my face with the mascara wand almost touching my eye and she says, "Whass my name?”

  Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For his [the artist's] life is, of necessity, full of conflicts, since two forces fight in him: the ordinary man with his justified claim for happiness, contentment, and guarantees for living on the one hand, and the ruthless creative passion on the other, which under certain conditions crushes all personal desires into the dust.”

  Carl Jung (1875–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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