Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,745 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“The mural artist is concerned with bringing to life dead surfaces by the application of colour.”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Revival of Mural Art, The Listener, August 25, 1937 Vol. XVIII. No. 450, pp. 408-409
“I was attracted to Romanesque sculptures, to the complete re-invented figures and the freedom with which the Romanesque artist constructed them. He does not copy, he creates in a totally anti-Renaissance fashion can say that in Romanesque sculpture I have found a starting point for distortion.”
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kunst und Zeugnis, Dora Vallier, Zürich 1967, p. 67
“When I started writing I was a great rationalist and believed I was absolutely in control. But the older one gets, the more confused, and for an artist I think that is quite a good thing: you allow in more of your instinctual self; your dreams, fantasies and memories. It's richer, in a way.”
John Banville (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every artist has a Dorian Gray slaving away in the attic.”
John Banville (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. The history of the capitalist era is characterized by the degradation of my people: despoiled of their lands, their true culture destroyed... denied equal protection of the law, and deprived their rightful place in the respect of their fellows.”
Paul Robeson (1898–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Paul Robeson, The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 60
“A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells.”
Grandma Moses (1860–1961) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Grandma Moses, American Primitive : Forty Paintings (1947) by Otto Kallir
“The artist, like the idiot or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it.”
Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..I felt angry when I learnt that a great artist like Mani Madhava Chakyar was awarded a mere Padma Shri. A man of his artistic genius and erudition deserved to be decorated with the highest state honour (Bharat Ratna)” - RKG (Editor, The Illustrated Weekly, Columnist for Times of India), 2000RKG, India : A Nation in Turmoil, Vedam Books, New Delhi (2000), , p. 256”
Mani Madhava Chakyar (1899–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kandinsky was connected with Die Brücke and the Blue Rider: they had a concept and created a reality. But I prefer Jean Fautrier [French painter-artist; 1898 - 1965] with his suffering and self-absorption. And his purpose on bringing about changes was just as strong. As a result I see in Fautrier a stronger paradigm than in Kandinsky..”
Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1986) n.p.
“Until the artist is dead, we are not able to determine his work in all its dimensions.”
Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1986) n.p.
“This is the way in which the artist has set about the construction of the world - an activity which affects every human being and carries work beyond the frontiers of comprehension. We see how its creative path took it by way of cubism to pure construction, but there was still no outlet to be found here.”
El Lissitsky (1890–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the time when I was working on the exhibitions I was also very active as a book artist and in photo montage (for I could carry out those assignments when my sickness obliged me remain lying down).”
El Lissitsky (1890–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The label didn't want me to do this look. But cutting my hair, it made me stand out as an artist. I don't care who likes it--this is me.”
“The great artist takes what he needs.”
Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She, however, attentively watched my looks, and her artist's pride was gratified, no doubt, to read my heartfelt admiration in my eyes.”
Anne Brontë (1820–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The concern of the artist is with the discrepancy between physical fact and psychological effect.”
Josef Albers (1888–1976) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from: 'Albers Paints a Picture' Elaine de Kooning, Art News 49, November 1950, p. 40; as quoted in Abstract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1983, p. 67
“If one defends the bourgeois, philistine virtues, one does not defend them merely from the demonism or bohemianism of the artist but from the present bourgeoisie itself.”
Lionel Trilling (1905–1975) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Notebook entry (1951), published in Partisan Review: 50th Anniversary Edition, ed. William Philips (1985)
“Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.”
Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Henry Miller, 1948
“My last wife [woman-artist Isa Genzken, he married in 1982 - they broke up in 1993] was very competitive, which was hard for both of us.”
Gerhard Richter (born 1932) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the lines of the mighty and simple strains dominating the movement, and felt intuitively and studied out by him, the master artist groups with full intention, his muscular forms. No detail contradicts. His men and animals live. Such is the work of three or four modern artists. Such was the work of many an old Greek sculptor.”
Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) first seen 1894 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Differential Action of Certain Muscles Passing More than One Joint," lecture, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (1 May 1894)
“A successful artist of any kind has to work so hard that she is justified in refusing to lay down her sceptre until she is placed on the bier.”
Edith Evans (1888–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Dame Edith Evans, ch. 13, by Bryan Forbes (1977)
“A director is a man, therefore he has ideas; he is also an artist, therefore he has imagination. Whether they are good or bad, it seems to me that I have an abundance of stories to tell. And the things I see, the things that happen to me, continually renew the supply.”
Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't regard my characters as symbols of a determined society. See them as something that sparks a reaction within you so that they become a personal experience. The critic is a spectator and an artist insofar as he transforms the work into a personal thing of his own.”
Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need a corrective on who is a genuine artist. I'm an opportunist. I have no talent. That's true of 99 per cent of people in the British media. Ricky Gervais or Graham and Arthur who wrote Father Ted or Armando Iannucci are God-like as they have talent. Everyone else is a drone.”
Griff Rhys Jones (born 1953) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Michael Odell, "This much I know: Griff Rhys Jones", The Guardian, November 5, 2006.
“(..as a practicing artist) You're competing against who came before and came after. You're just another stone in the wall, and if you make a contribution you're lucky.”
Richard Serra (1939–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The magic happens only when the artist serves with love and the listener receives with the same spirit.”
Ravi Shankar (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: M. S. Swaminathan
“GO TO HELL BASTARD STOP. REFUSE PRIZE STOP. NEVER ASKED FOR IT STOP. AGAINST ALL DECENCY MIX ARTIST AGAINST HIS WILL IN YOUR PUBLICITY STOP. I WANT PUBLIC CONFIRMATION NOT TO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN YOUR RIDICULOUS GAME.”
Asger Jorn (1914–1973) first seen 1964 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from Wikipedia: the text of Asger Jorn's telegram in 1964, to the president of the Guggenheim Museum, Harry F. Guggenheim
“The role of the artist.. ..and the poet is precisely to blur normal categories, to disrupt them, and by doing so restore to the eyes and the mind ingenuity and freshness.”
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dubuffet once explained to Jacques Berne; as cited in 'Dubuffet, Lévi-Strauss, and the Idea of Art Brut', Kent Minturn, from RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 46, Polemical Objects (Autumn, 2004), pp. 247-258, p. 256
“Billy Bennett – I speak of the artist – was forthright, bawdy, and wholesome…[His] grossness had that gusto about it which is like a high wind blowing over a noisome place.”
Billy Bennett (1887–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: James Agate Immoment Toys (New York, [1945] 1969) p. 225.
“I don't think that either self-deprecation or self-aggrandizement is among the defining qualities of an artist…Beethoven could have been forgiven if his symphonies had gone to his head. Gretchaninoff could also be forgiven if his Dobrinya Nikititch went to his head. But neither one could be forgiven for writing a piece that was amoral, servile, the work of a flunky.”
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Isaac Glikman, February 26, 1960; Josiah Fisk & Jeff Nichols (eds.) Composers on Music (1997) p. 354.
“I'm a little nervous about saying anything about "the Artist" because it kind of sticks him right between the eyes, but he deserves it. Warhol really fucked up a great many people's - young people's - lives. My introduction to heavy drugs came through the Factory. I liked the introduction to drugs I received. I was a good target for the scene; I blossomed into a healthy young drug addict.”
Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971) said by 1971 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Analogously to Arnulf Rainer′s ‘overpaintings’,and extending these with my own actionistic resources, the artist′s head should be in the picture ,should become one with the picture, and disappear in it.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 12 (Gunter Brus inDie Schastrommel.Organ der österreichischen Exilregierung.Bolzano:ed. Gunter Brus,June 1972,no.8a, p. 57.)
“You become an artist to upset your family.”
Günter Brus (1938–2024) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: P. 51 (Gunter Brus.Nach uns die Malflut!Pheoretische Poesien.Klagenfurt:Ritter Verlag,2003, p. 135)
“It was Homer who gave laws to the artist.”
Francis Wayland (1796–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Iliad and the Bible, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 45.
“It isn’t illegal to buy an artist’s work for peanuts and sell it again at any price one can get. But it is an outrage!”
Murray Leinster (1896–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-trust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciples. A noble artist, he has visions of excellence and revelations of beauty, which he has neither impersonated in character, nor embodied in words. His life and teachings are but studies for yet nobler ideals.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) said by 1888 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Toscanini was hailing a great artist, but that voice was more than a magnificent personal talent. It was the religious voice of a whole religious people — probably the most God-obsessed (and man-despised) people since the ancient Hebrews. ("In Egypt Land," December 30, 1946)”
Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ideas worth questioning: "Being an artist is a job for life.”
Brian Eno (born 1948) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: June 25, 1995, p. 140
“As struggles go, being an artist isn't that much of one.”
Brian Eno (born 1948) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: October 25, 1995, p. 233
“New knowledge is only useful in so far as it opens up new vistas for the imagination, and no more so than the old forms which the artist must understand only in order to reject.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Technical criticism in particular is the despair of the artist. No one but an idiot would offer a poet his comments in terms of spondees and trochees; why must the painter daily suffer the indignity? Any picture which makes one conscious first of its technical qualities, good or bad, is not a good picture, whatever else it may be.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His work is full of the signs of those two cardinal sins from which (as Kafka pointed out) all the others spring: impatience and laziness. The work of every artist is conditioned by the way in which he resists or yields to these temptations.”
Patrick Swift (1927–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The revolutionary artist is born into a world of clichés, of stale images and signs which no longer pierce the consciousness to express reality. He therefore invents new symbols, perhaps a whole new symbolic system.”
Herbert Read (1893–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Philosophy of Modern Art: Collected Essays (1971).
“Artist, philosopher, lover, mystic—these words name levels of consciousness which are accessible to all of us. It is not a question of training, education, or degree of sophistication. It is rather a question of openness, of courage and endeavour, of willingness to dwell elsewhere than in the midst of demeaning preoccupations with material fortune, status, and power.”
R. W. K. Paterson (born 1933) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist is lonesome and admits his solitude.”
Elfriede Jelinek (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To me, one of the best things in the world is that sublime moment when a writer, artist, or musician manages to express something you’ve always felt but never articulated, or at least never quite so beautifully.”
Susan Cain (born 1968) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About", SusanCain.net, May 2022.
“Every artist is crazy with respect to ordinary life.”
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1874–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Always the artist, never the superstar.”
V. V. S. Laxman (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to be a balanced artist ... this is all years of me learning me and my style, and deciding to do something different that would get everyone's attention.”
Nicki Minaj (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writers who are also artist's only think of themselves as truly living when they are engaged in their sweet labour.”
Edward Storer (1882–1944) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Leigh Hunt' Herbert and Daniel, London, 1913