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. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“An artist who theorizes about his work is no longer artist but critic.”
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Temptaion of Harringay (1929)
“An artist's touches are sometimes no more articulate than the barking of a dog who would call attention to something without exactly knowing what. This is as it should be, and he is a great artist who can be depended on not to bark at nothing.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To stroll on wharves, and in alleys and in streets and in the houses, waiting-rooms, even saloons, that is not a pleasant pastime unless for an artist. As such, one would rather be in the dirtiest place where there is something to draw, than at a tea party with charming ladies. Unless one wants to draw ladies, then a tea party is all right even for an artist.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote in his letter to brother Theo, from The Hague, The Netherlands in Spring 1882; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935], p. 34 (letter 190)
“But an artist, he realized. Or rather so-called artist. Bohemian. That’s closer to it. The artistic life without the talent.”
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist who is after success lets himself be influenced by the public. Generally such an artist contributes nothing new, for the public acclaims only what it already knows, what it recognizes.”
André Gide (1869–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.”
Willa Cather (1873–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lenin is an artist who has worked men, as other artists have worked marble or metals. But men are harder than stone and less malleable than iron. There is no masterpiece. The artist has failed. The task was superior to his capacities.”
Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Popolo d'Italia (14 July 1920) "The Artificer and the Material," quoted in Mussolini in the Making (1938) by Gaudens Megaro, p. 326
“The composer reveals the innermost nature of the world, and expresses the profoundest wisdom in a language that his reasoning faculty does not understand, just as a magnetic somnambulist gives information about things of which she has no conception when she is awake. Therefore in the composer, more than in any other artist, the man is entirely separate and distinct from the artist.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They made a good team. As a matter of fact their talents were not too far apart; the artist is two-thirds artisan and the artisan has essentially the same creative urge as the artist.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be an artist at all is like living in Switzerland during a world war. To be an artist in Zurich, in 1917, implies a degree of self-absorption that would have glazed over the eyes of Narcissus.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I learned three things in Zurich during the war. I wrote them down. Firstly, you're either a revolutionary or you're not, and if you're not you might as well be an artist as anything else. Secondly, if you can't be an artist, you might as well be a revolutionary. … I forget the third thing.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the age of ten, twenty, a hundred, very young, a little older, and very old, an artist is always an artist. Isn't he better at some times, some moments, than at others? Never impeccable, since he is a living, human being?”
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 219: quote from 1903
“at that point, that's when I forged my identity as an artist. At 8, I, you know, rebelled against the church and I rebelled against the educational system. I stepped outside the box and forged my identity as an artist.”
Joni Mitchell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one... It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one — which is really the realm of the artist.”
Federico Fellini (1920–1993) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Every Time We Say Goodbye" in Sight and Sound [London] ( June 1991)
“The artist deals in what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He is an Australian artist like Sidney Nolan is an Australian artist - beyond comparison, beyond genre, beyond dispute.”
Nick Cave (born 1957) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Source: Nick Cave to enter ARIA Hall of Fame (2007)
“A real artist -- a real artist -- does what they want to do. And that-- and I'm not talking about being indulgent; I'm talking about "That joke is good enough -- for me -- to make my set-- to be in my set.”
Jerry Seinfeld (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am a graphic artist heart and soul, though I find the term "artist" rather embarrassing.”
M. C. Escher (1898–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Creation is dominated by three absolutely different factors: First, nature, which works upon us by its laws; second, the artist, who creates a spiritual contact with nature and his materials; third, the medium of expression through which the artist translates his inner world. Of those three components only one, the medium, is material.”
Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Hans Hofmann (1963) by William Chapin Seitz, p. 15
“Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it”
D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Studies in Classic American Literature (1923)
“The Outsider may be an artist, but the artist is not necessarily an Outsider.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New Age, March 30, 1922. As quoted in Impact: Essays on Ignorance and the Decline of American Civilization edited by Noel Stock, 1960
“[I'm] a sponge, the more I absorb, the more I am able to articulate my vision, as artists do, like Picasso. I'm an artist in that light. I went from being an artist to an artiste.”
Usher (musician) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From "Usher ‘experimental’ in relationships", Q Magazine (May 25, 2012).
“Both artist and neurotic speak and live from the subconscious and unconscious depths of their society. The artist does this positively, communicating what he experiences to his fellow men. The neurotic does this negatively.”
Rollo May (1909–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Astaire really sweat - he toiled. He was a humorless Teutonic man, the opposite of his debonair image in top hat and tails. I liked him because he was an entertainer and an artist. There's a distinction between them. An artist is concerned only with what is acceptable to himself, where an entertainer strives to please the public. Astaire did both. Louis Armstrong was another one.”
Fred Astaire (1899–1987) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Artie Shaw on his collaboration with Astaire in Second Chorus (1940) as interviewed in Fantle, Dave and Johnson, Tom. Reel to Real. Badger Books LLC, 2004, p. 304. .
“The horse carries the rider with power and speed. But the rider controls the horse. Talent carries the artist to great heights with power and speed. But the artist directs his talent. That is the element of 'consciousness', of 'calculation' in the work – or whatever else one chooses to call it.”
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only the artist who has a love and an aptitude for craftsmanship should make prints; only when the artist truly prints himself does the work earn the name original print.”
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quote of 1921; , in 'Uber Kirchners Graphik', Genius 3, no. 2, p. 252; as quoted in 'The Revival of Printmaking in Germany', by I. K. Rigby; in German Expressionist Prints and Drawings - Essays Vol 1.; published by Muse…
“Just as "pluck" comes of breeding, so is endurance especially an attribute of the artist. Because he can stand outside himself, and (if there be nothing ignoble in them) take pleasure in his own sufferings, the artist has a huge advantage over you and me.”
Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The seeing of things as they really are — the seeing of a proportion veiled from other eyes (together with the power of expression), is what makes a man an artist. What makes him a great artist is a high fervour of spirit, which produces a superlative, instead of a comparative, clarity of vision.”
John Galsworthy (1867–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail. Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry (Munich, 1909), # 857, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968, p. 236
“For the artist communication with nature remains the most essential condition. The artist is human; himself nature; part of nature within natural space.”
Paul Klee (1879–1940) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Klee's statement written in 1923, in 'Paths of the Study of Natura' (Wage dar Natur studiums), Paul Klee; in Yearbook of the Staatlich. Bauhaus, Weimar, 1919-1923, Bauhaus Verlag, Weimar, 1923
“I didn't want to be a woman artist, I just wanted to be an artist.”
Isabel Bishop (1902–1988) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (16 December 1982) as quoted in The "New Woman" Revised : Painting and Gender Politics on Fourteenth Street (1992) by Ellen Wiley Todd, Ch. 7, p. 273.
“To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.”
Jasper Johns (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted in photo-exhibition 'Cy Twombly', museum Marseille Amsterdam, autumn 2008
“The artist’s aim is not to instruct the viewer, but to give information, whether the viewer understands the information is incidental to the artist.”
Sol LeWitt (1928–2007) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Serial Project #1, 1966,” Aspen 5/6 (Fall/Winter 1967)
“Kurt Schwitters is the inventor of Merz and I, and aside of himself, he recognizes no one as a Merz artist or an I artist with highest regards.”
Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In: 'Die Blume Anna', a poem of Kurt Schwitters, published in 'Consistent Poetry Art' contribution to 'Magazine G', No. 3, ed. Hans Richter, 1924
“The skills of the modern artist are the opposite of those of the craftsman: instead of acquiring techniques for producing classes of objects, the artist today perfects the means suited to his particular work.”
Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For the artist, fulfillment of self consists not in marching in the ranks of the liberators but in being entered in the roll of the Masters. The artist tends to find himself in the position of a deserter from his social group — or, at best, one who collaborates, with secret reservations.”
Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He’s an artist,” she said calmly. “I’ve dealt with the type before, and recently. Like the bad guy said, never give an artist a Browning; they’re some of the most dangerous folks you can meet. The Festival fringe—shit! Artists almost always want an audience, the spectacle of destruction.”
Charles Stross (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“T. S. Eliot said it is no business of the artist to think. I presume he meant it's only the business of the artist to feel, but I like the notion of there being a mind behind the fiction that I read and that I write.”
John Banville (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy…to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted.”
Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Noble Essences, Bk. IX, ch. 7 (1950).
“It is not the favourable conditions, but most deprived circumstances that mould an artist” - about the struggles that he had undergone in his life as an artist.”
Mani Madhava Chakyar (1899–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Little did the artist know, who neglected his appearance in favor of his work, that the years would produce a breed that spent hours meticulously acquiring a neglected look to appear like an artist.”
Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A creative artist works on his next composition because he is not satisfied with his previous one. When he loses a critical attitude toward his own work, he ceases to be an artist.”
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New York Times, October 25, 1959.
“My job is to help the world..That is what an artist's job is—to the degree that we can. That is nothing more than holding up a mirror and saying, 'You're beautiful, baby.' Or holding up a mirror and saying, 'Look at the shit that you're doing to yourself. Maybe you should stop.' It is an artist's job to speak truth to power.”
N. K. Jemisin (born 1972) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the artist's role, in "N.K. Jemisin Is Trying to Keep the World From Ending" in Gentlemen's Quarterly (2018 Nov 28)
“So what happens when the camera is finally invented?” Handley let his breath escape in a whoosh. “The artists are out of jobs?” “Wrong. The artist simply have to learn how to do things that the camera can’t. The artist had to stop being a recorder and start being an interpreter. That’s when expressionism was born.”
David Gerrold (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once we become conscious of a feeling and attempt to make a corresponding form, we are engaged in an activity which, far from being sincere, is prepared (as any artist if he is sincere will tell you) to moderate feelings to fit the form. The artist’s feeling for form is stronger than a formless feeling.”
Herbert Read (1893–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We consider the artist a special sort of person. It is more likely that each of us is a special sort of artist.”
Elsa Gidlow (1898–1986) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As cited in West, Celeste, 1986, "In Memoriam: Elsa Gidlow", Feminist Studies, 12 (3), 614.
“I am an artist. Gardening is my graffiti. A graffiti artist beautifies walls; I beautify parkways and yards. I treat the garden as a piece of cloth and the plants and the trees are the embellishment of that cloth. You’d be surprised what soil can do if you let it be your canvas.”
Ron Finley wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The experience or the vision is the artist’s counterpart to the scientific discovery of a principle or law. What the scientist does when he discovers a new law is to give a new ordering to observed facts. The artist is engaged in a similar task. He gives new meaning to our experience and organizes it in a different way due to his perception of subtler qualities in reality.”
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The artist's tool or the traditional artist's brush and maybe even oil paint are all disappearing very quickly. We use mostly commercial paint, and we generally tend toward lager brushes. In a way, Abstract Expressionism started this all. De Kooning used house painter's brushes and house painters' techniques.”
Frank Stella (1936–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source