Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Art
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“My "Poems" were written without a purpose, other than the expression of faiths and ideals strongly realized and emotions keenly felt. They were written for the joy of writing, and for the satisfaction of an irresistible impulse. It is my belief that it is not the business of art either to teach or to preach.”
Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written at Camp Elsinore, Upper St. Regis Lake, New York, June 24, 1898. From Book News, Aug 1898.
“I don’t like making didactic, pedagogical documentaries based on standard formulas of narration: I'm only interested in the ambitious French tradition of the documentaire de création where the film, if successful, is not about something but that something itself. The goal is to incorporate areas of risk and paradox that we associate with cinematic art.”
Damian Pettigrew (born 1953) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the documentary art film, Le Parisien (May, 2003)
“The filmed interview is an art extemporized under difficult conditions and successful only when the interviewee hasn't prepared his replies beforehand.”
Damian Pettigrew (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was council president I had a rule that people could sleep on the job. I modified the rule. You could actually sleep in public if you weren't sitting down. I had three people who actually perfected the art of sleeping while standing.”
John F. Street (born 1943) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Actual Excerpts from John Street's Class at Temple" by Tom Namako in Philadelphia Citypaper (27 February 2008)
“How free from every thing like art were the reasonings and language of Christ.”
David Thomas (born 1813) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Theology is just like sex, the art of penetrating the mystery.”
Leon Bertoletti (born 1971) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Arts, Hic Sunt Leones, 15/6/2007
“The intellectual development of man, far from having gotten men away from war, has rather, on the contrary, brought them to a more perfected refinement in the art of killing.”
Afrikan Spir (1837–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If nothing were left of an extinct race but a single button, I would be able to infer, form the shape of that button, how these people dressed, built their houses, how they lived, what was their religion, their art, their mentality.”
Adolf Loos (1870–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Berel Lang, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Summer, 1978), pp. 715-739; see .
“As I understand it, your policemen are chosen by their height and weight; they must meet certain requirements as to heft—as thought the only crimes they had to cope with were riots and gang feuds. Bulk—the great American ideal, whether in art, architecture, table d‘hôte meals, or detectives. An entrancin‘ notion.”
S. S. Van Dine (1888–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For what was art, she thought, but the heart and soul made visible.”
Jane Yolen (1939–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The sensate body possesses] an art of interrogating the sensible according to its own wishes, an inspired exegesis”
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Visible and the Invisible, trans. A. Lingis (Evanston: 1968), p. 135
“Any great work of art … revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world — the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air.”
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What Makes Opera Grand?", Vogue (December 1958)
“I don't know much about Art, but I know what I like. (p. 24)”
Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel that music is the art which can best express the emotions which flow within us. It conveys something bigger than it is.”
Andrew Sega (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first thing that will strike you as odd in Japan is how polite everyone is. Quite apart from the neverending bowing, they have obsequiousness down to an art that even the Chinese haven't mastered.”
Jeremy Clarkson (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What foreigners like most about Britain is not multiculturalism or tolerance or any of that new Labour nonsense. No, what they like is our history. Shakespeare. Blenheim Palace. Soldiers in preposterous hats who don't move. Yes, they may go and see some dead dogs in a modern art gallery but that's only because they've spent the morning on top of a sightseeing bus and they're freezing.”
Jeremy Clarkson (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why settle for the art world when you can have the whole world?”
Martin Firrell (born 1963) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in the documentary The Question Mark Inside broadcast in the UK by Sky Arts (30 October 2009).
“Art is like a fart for the soul. Better out than in.”
Martin Firrell (born 1963) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: on the topic of public art, quoted at franceinlondon.com (September 2004).
“Art should help you to navigate the real challenges of being a human being.”
Martin Firrell (born 1963) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in the documentary Art in a Word by Vera Baghiroli, qoob tv (22 July 2008).
“I believe we have to put art back at the center of everyday life rather than allowing it to become a specialist activity at the margins of society.”
Martin Firrell (born 1963) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The International Herald Tribune (19 September 2005).
“I’m not sure I’m good at art, but I find an escape in it.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Barboza, David, and Lynn Zhang. “The Clown Scholar: Ai Weiwei.” ArtzineChina, 2008.
“Art is not an end but a beginning.”
“Contemporary art and the [Communist] Party are an impossible situation. It’s like oil and water—they can never mix.”
“I think all aesthetic judgments—all the aesthetic choices we are making—are moral choices. They cannot escape the moral dimension in the broader sense. It has to relate to the philosophical understanding of who we are and how so-called “art and culture” functions in today’s world.”
“Everything is art. Everything is politics.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Coonan, Clifford. “An Artist’s Struggle for Justice in China.” Independent, February 27, 2010.
“I think my stance and my way of life is my most important art.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Osnos, Evan. “It’s Not Beautiful: An Artist Takes On the System.” New Yorker, May 24, 2010, 54–63.
“I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artist’s Quotes.” Excerpted from a conversation with curators Juliet Bingham and Marko Daniel, Beijing, May 31 and June 1, 2010. Tate Museums, UK.
“Art is always about overcoming obstacles between the inner condition and the skill for expression.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Solway, Diane. “Enforced Disappearance.” W Magazine, November 2011.
“I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions.”
“I don’t have this concept that separates my art from my daily life. They are one thing to me. They are always one. How do you find the way to express yourself and how to communicate with others?”
“Very few people know why art sells so high. I don’t even know.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ai Weiwei, interview in “Change,” Episode 1, Season Six, Art: 21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, PBS, April 2012.
“Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artist Ai Weiwei: China Crushes Dissenting Voices," in: Fox News, June 11, 2012.
“These games are marvelous,” Amanda said. “I like them especially because they are so meaningless and boring, and trivial. These qualities, once regarded as less than desirable, are now everywhere enthroned as the key elements in our psychological lives, as reflected in the art of the period as well as—”
Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea of infinity cannot be expressed in words or even described, but it can be apprehended through art, which makes infinity tangible. The absolute is only attainable through faith and in the creative act.”
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all.”
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful. Here the aesthetic coincides with the ethical.”
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one component of a film can have any meaning in isolation: it is the film that is the work of art. And we can only talk about its components rather arbitrarily, dividing it up artificially or the sake of theoretical discussion.”
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The evolution of art has nothing to do with the revolution of society.”
Isidore Isou (1925–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry is a collaborative art, and yet—as it is being created—the most solitary and 'individual' of activities.”
Michael Schmidt (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry is a vocal art for me, not neccessarilyperformative, it might be reading to one self or recalling some lines by memory.The speaker bringing their own experience to it,changing it with their own sensibility.”
Robert Pinsky (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Each work of art generate its own rules”
Robert Pinsky (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ask! Interviewing/information extraction is an (exceptionally important) ‘art’ that must be mastered!”
Tom Peters (born 1942) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 06 February 2017
“I have never agreed to the word of creative activity. Man does not create. In the best case, he interprets, in a good or bad way; in the worst case, he manipulates, cheats and causes confusion; like in all the walks of life, in art as well...”
Sadik Kaceli (1914–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Its culture: the fruit of its life, the product of its own efforts in thought and art. This culture is not international. It is the expression of the national genius, of the blood. The culture is international in its brilliance but national in origin. Someone made a fine comparison: bread and wheat may be internationally consumed, but they always bear the imprint of the soil from which they came.”
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poetry will never win the war on terror But neither will error abetted by error We girly men are not afraid Of uncertainty or reason or interdependence We think before we fight, then think some more Proclaim our faith in listening, in art, in compromise So be a girly man & sing this gurly song Sissies & proud That we would never lie our way to war”
Charles Bernstein (born 1950) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Ballad of the Girlie Man", Milk Magazine, no. 6, 2005. Anthologized in Girlie Man (2006), .
“What a disgrace to live at the beginning of the 20th century. … One is always influenced by one's own time. And ours is that of Sarah Bernhardt and Rostand. Things will be much better in another ten years. You will see a new art born, new and beautiful. You will see that, but I shall not. I shall be dead. But … Sarah Bernhardt will live forever, and go on playing L'AIGLON forever!”
Renée Vivien (1877–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one has ever suggested that tax exemption has converted libraries, art galleries, or hospitals into arms of the state or employees "on the public payroll." There is no genuine nexus between tax exemption and establishment of religion.”
Warren E. Burger (1907–1995) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Walz v. Tax Commission, 397 U.S. 664, 675 (1970).
“One’s ears are weary of the voice of the art teacher who sits like the parrot on his perch, learning the jargon of the studios, making but poor copy and calling it criticism. We have had enough of their omniscience, their parade of technical knowledge, and their predilection for the wrong end of the stick.”
Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since I started making art, I’ve always had some kind of project that was really about and for other people, because I think I just need that balance to feel sane myself — you know?”
Miranda July (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is a guaranty of sanity.”
Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Louise Bourgeois, "Art is a Guaranty of Sanity," title of 2000 drawing, Pencil on pink paper, 27.9 x 21.5 cm. Collection Museum of Modern Art, New York