- Quotes -
(Including a list of 7 links with quotes on various topics - and - 84 quotes in 2 sections, for visual and performing arts)
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent
about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Quotes for artists at About.com - Painting
* Inspiration
http://painting.about.com/od/artandartistquotes/a/quotes_inspire.htm
* Creative Challenges
http://painting.about.com/od/famouspainters/a/quotes_creative.htm
* Colour
http://painting.about.com/library/biographies/blartistquotescolour.htm
* Claude Monet Quotes
http://painting.about.com/library/biographies/blartistquotesmonet.htm
* Vincent van Gogh Quotes
http://painting.about.com/od/artandartistquotes/a/Quotes_Van_Gogh.htm
* French Impressionists Quotes
http://painting.about.com/library/biographies/blartistquotesimpressionists.htm
* Leonardo da Vinci Quotes
http://painting.about.com/library/biographies/blartistquoteleonardo.htm
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
- Section One -
Visual Artists
- 78 quotes -
Many believe - and I believe -
that I have been designated for this work by God.
In spite of my old age, I do not want to give it up;
I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him. /
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection. /
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. /
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands. /
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. /
I live and love in God's peculiar light. /
Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. /
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands. /
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. /
I live and love in God's peculiar light. /
If we have been pleased with life,
we should not be displeased with death,
since it comes from the hand of the same master. /
What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that
the foot is more noble than the shoe,
and skin more beautiful that the garment with which it clothed?
- above quotes by Michelangelo
*****
Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works
collaborate with the creator.
- Antoni Gaudi
*****
collaborate with the creator.
- Antoni Gaudi
*****
I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.
- William Blake
What I paint touches on foundational life values. Home, family, peacefulness.
And one of the messages I try to constantly get across is
slow it down and enjoy every moment.
- Thomas Kinkade
I realized that all the really good ideas I'd ever had
came to me while I was milking a cow.
So I went back to Iowa.
- Grant Wood (Painter)
*****
I am rather like a travelling salesman. I deal in ideas.
I do much more for people than just paint them pictures.
- Martin Kippenberger
*****
I prefer every time a picture composed and painted outdoors.
The thing is done without your knowing it.
- Winslow Homer
*****
Make sure you love art and don't do it if you don't, because you'll be found out.
Don't listen to the teachers. And feel it. Do it because you can't do anything else.
Once you've decided, don't do anything else,
because as someone once said,
"art is long".
- David Larwill (Australian Painter)
*****
Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
- Claude Monet
*****
Every good painter paints what he is.
- Jackson Pollock
*****
Everytime I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
- John Singer Sargent
*****
- William Blake
*****
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians.
When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
- Winston Churchill
*****
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians.
When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
- Winston Churchill
*****
What I paint touches on foundational life values. Home, family, peacefulness.
And one of the messages I try to constantly get across is
slow it down and enjoy every moment.
- Thomas Kinkade
*****
came to me while I was milking a cow.
So I went back to Iowa.
- Grant Wood (Painter)
*****
I am rather like a travelling salesman. I deal in ideas.
I do much more for people than just paint them pictures.
- Martin Kippenberger
*****
I prefer every time a picture composed and painted outdoors.
The thing is done without your knowing it.
- Winslow Homer
*****
Make sure you love art and don't do it if you don't, because you'll be found out.
Don't listen to the teachers. And feel it. Do it because you can't do anything else.
Once you've decided, don't do anything else,
because as someone once said,
"art is long".
- David Larwill (Australian Painter)
*****
Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
- Claude Monet
*****
Every good painter paints what he is.
- Jackson Pollock
*****
Everytime I paint a portrait I lose a friend.
- John Singer Sargent
*****
He (Vincent) has painted a few portraits which have turned out well,
but he always does them for no payment.
It is a pity that he does not want to earn something,
for if he did want to he could make something here,
but you can't change a person.
- Theo van Gogh (Art dealer and Vincent van Gogh’s younger brother)
but he always does them for no payment.
It is a pity that he does not want to earn something,
for if he did want to he could make something here,
but you can't change a person.
- Theo van Gogh (Art dealer and Vincent van Gogh’s younger brother)
*****
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. /
I consciously choose the dog's path through life. I shall be poor; I shall be a painter... /
I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed. /
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. /
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. /
The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.
- above quotes by Vincent van Gogh
*****
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day. /
I consciously choose the dog's path through life. I shall be poor; I shall be a painter... /
I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed. /
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. /
I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process. /
The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting.
- above quotes by Vincent van Gogh
*****
An artist's career always begins tomorrow. /
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
- above quotes by James McNeill Whistler
*****
I know the price of success:
dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
- Frank Lloyd Wright (Architect)
*****
Never retire,
Michelangelo was carving the Rondanini just before he died at eighty-nine.
Verdi finished his opera Falstaff at eighty.
- W. Gifford-Jones (British physician)
*****
There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.
- Henry Moore
*****
To me, it's not work. When I draw and I write, I find it relaxing.
It's not like 9-to-5, where a man goes to a job and he isn't really interested in the job.
Luckily, I get paid for doing what I'd do for nothing.
- Bob Kane (Creator of Batman)
*****
If I were a better artist, I'd be a painter, and if I were a better writer, I'd write books..
but I'm not, so I draw cartoons!
- Charles M. Schulz (Cartoonist)
*****
An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
- above quotes by James McNeill Whistler
*****
I know the price of success:
dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.
- Frank Lloyd Wright (Architect)
*****
Never retire,
Michelangelo was carving the Rondanini just before he died at eighty-nine.
Verdi finished his opera Falstaff at eighty.
- W. Gifford-Jones (British physician)
*****
There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.
- Henry Moore
*****
To me, it's not work. When I draw and I write, I find it relaxing.
It's not like 9-to-5, where a man goes to a job and he isn't really interested in the job.
Luckily, I get paid for doing what I'd do for nothing.
- Bob Kane (Creator of Batman)
*****
If I were a better artist, I'd be a painter, and if I were a better writer, I'd write books..
but I'm not, so I draw cartoons!
- Charles M. Schulz (Cartoonist)
*****
A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing.
- William Dobell
- William Dobell
*****
I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art
what he thought it previously lacked.
With me, it's what Yeats called the fascination with what's difficult.
I'm only trying to do what I can't do.
- Lucian Freud
*****
I believe art has to take responsibility
but it should not give up being art.
- Anselm Kiefer
*****
Some people have been kind enough to call me a fine artist.
I've always called myself an illustrator. I'm not sure what the difference is.
All I know is that whatever type of work I do, I try to give it my very best.
Art has been my life. /
The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure.
So, you see, they're always looking ahead to something new and exciting.
The secret is not to look back.
- above quotes by Norman Rockwell
*****
I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art
what he thought it previously lacked.
With me, it's what Yeats called the fascination with what's difficult.
I'm only trying to do what I can't do.
- Lucian Freud
*****
I believe art has to take responsibility
but it should not give up being art.
- Anselm Kiefer
*****
Some people have been kind enough to call me a fine artist.
I've always called myself an illustrator. I'm not sure what the difference is.
All I know is that whatever type of work I do, I try to give it my very best.
Art has been my life. /
The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure.
So, you see, they're always looking ahead to something new and exciting.
The secret is not to look back.
- above quotes by Norman Rockwell
*****
Thank goodness I was never sent to school;
it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
- Beatrix Potter (English author and illustrator of children’s books)
it would have rubbed off some of the originality.
- Beatrix Potter (English author and illustrator of children’s books)
*****
Comics, which are really best described as an arrangement of images
in a sequence that tell a story - an idea - is a very old form of graphic communication.
It began with the hieroglyphics in Egypt, it first appeared in a recognizable form
in the Medieval times as copper plates produced by the Catholic church to tell morality stories.
- Will Eisner (Cartoonist, writer, illustrator - "grandfather" of the graphic novel)
*****
Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of your heart. /
Seven days without laughter makes one weak.
- above quotes by Mort Walker (Cartoonist)
*****
I think that the very earliest influence was a horror
of having to work in a bank or an office,
a desire for a free and creative life.
- Frank Auerbach
*****
Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother’s womb.
- Jean Arp (Sculptor)
*****
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep.
- Scott Adams
*****
When I go out into the countryside and see the sun and the green and everything flowering,
I say to myself "Yes indeed, all that belongs to me!".
- Henri Rousseau
*****
Now there is fame!
Of all -- hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public -- fame is by far the worst.
It is the castigation of God by the artist. It is sad. It is true. /
It takes a long time to become young.
- above quotes by Pablo Picasso
*****
The art of stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement.
Its ideal does not deviate from that of nature. But I am also a sculptor of the West.
I place my mark and do not hide.
- Isamu Noguchi
*****
If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography,
it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence,
as though I had forgotten to wake up.
- Richard Avedon
*****
A lot of it’s experimental, spontaneous.
It's about knocking about in the studio and bumping into things.
- Richard Prince
*****
Why do people think artists are special? It's just another job. /
Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.
- above quotes by Andy Warhol
*****
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--
things I had no words for.
- Georgia O'Keeffe
*****
I like making work in my studio day in and day out,
but I'm not so interested in the business side.
- Jenny Saville
*****
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
- Francis Bacon
*****
Art is made to disturb. Science reassures.
There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
- Georges Braque (cubist painter)
*****
I am out to introduce a psychic shock into my painting,
one that is always motivated by pictorial reasoning:
that is to say, a fourth dimension.
- Marc Chagall
*****
It took me 40 years to find out that painting is not sculpture.
- Paul Cezanne
*****
A clergyman once said to us, "Jealousy is a bad thing.
But I must confess that I am sometimes jealous of the artist
because the artist is closer to creation.
- George Passmore (Sculptor)
*****
Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters;
united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.
- Francisco Goya
*****
To give body and perfect form to your thought,
this alone is what it is to be an artist.
- Jacques-Louis David
*****
What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas,
but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.
- Eugene Delacroix
*****
Making beautiful things for everyday use is a wonderful thing to do..
making life flow more easily..
but art confronts life, allowing it to stop and perhaps change direction..
they are completely different.
- Antony Gormley
*****
My contribution to the world is my ability to draw.
I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can.
Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times.
It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.
- Keith Haring (American pop artist)
*****
A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world.
- Hans Hofmann
*****
The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality.
Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.
- Gustave Courbet
*****
To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits:
logic and common sense will only interfere.
But once these barriers are broken,
it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.
- Giorgio de Chirico
*****
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist.
- Edward Hopper
*****
An empty canvas is a living wonder.. far lovelier than certain pictures.
- Wassily Kandinsky
*****
I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. /
The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art. /
Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. /
Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active. /
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
- above quotes by Leonardo da Vinci
*****
I'm not really sure what social message my art carries, if any.
And I don't really want it to carry one.
I'm not interested in the subject matter to try to teach society anything,
or to try to better our world in any way.
- Roy Lichtenstein
*****
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. /
People still think of me as a cartoonist,
but the only thing I lift a pen or pencil for these days is to
sign a contract, a check or an autograph.
- above quotes by Walt Disney
** Musicians **
The music that really turns me on is either running toward God
or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
- Bono
*****
Man can't do without God.
Just like you're thirsty, you have to drink water.
You just can't go without God.
- Bob Marley
*****
O great creator of being
grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.
- Jim Morrison
Comics, which are really best described as an arrangement of images
in a sequence that tell a story - an idea - is a very old form of graphic communication.
It began with the hieroglyphics in Egypt, it first appeared in a recognizable form
in the Medieval times as copper plates produced by the Catholic church to tell morality stories.
- Will Eisner (Cartoonist, writer, illustrator - "grandfather" of the graphic novel)
*****
Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of your heart. /
Seven days without laughter makes one weak.
- above quotes by Mort Walker (Cartoonist)
*****
I think that the very earliest influence was a horror
of having to work in a bank or an office,
a desire for a free and creative life.
- Frank Auerbach
*****
Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother’s womb.
- Jean Arp (Sculptor)
*****
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep.
- Scott Adams
*****
When I go out into the countryside and see the sun and the green and everything flowering,
I say to myself "Yes indeed, all that belongs to me!".
- Henri Rousseau
*****
Now there is fame!
Of all -- hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public -- fame is by far the worst.
It is the castigation of God by the artist. It is sad. It is true. /
It takes a long time to become young.
- above quotes by Pablo Picasso
*****
The art of stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement.
Its ideal does not deviate from that of nature. But I am also a sculptor of the West.
I place my mark and do not hide.
- Isamu Noguchi
*****
If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography,
it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence,
as though I had forgotten to wake up.
- Richard Avedon
*****
A lot of it’s experimental, spontaneous.
It's about knocking about in the studio and bumping into things.
- Richard Prince
*****
Why do people think artists are special? It's just another job. /
Don't pay any attention to what they write about you. Just measure it in inches.
- above quotes by Andy Warhol
*****
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--
things I had no words for.
- Georgia O'Keeffe
*****
I like making work in my studio day in and day out,
but I'm not so interested in the business side.
- Jenny Saville
*****
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
- Francis Bacon
*****
Art is made to disturb. Science reassures.
There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
- Georges Braque (cubist painter)
*****
I am out to introduce a psychic shock into my painting,
one that is always motivated by pictorial reasoning:
that is to say, a fourth dimension.
- Marc Chagall
*****
It took me 40 years to find out that painting is not sculpture.
- Paul Cezanne
*****
A clergyman once said to us, "Jealousy is a bad thing.
But I must confess that I am sometimes jealous of the artist
because the artist is closer to creation.
- George Passmore (Sculptor)
*****
Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters;
united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.
- Francisco Goya
*****
To give body and perfect form to your thought,
this alone is what it is to be an artist.
- Jacques-Louis David
*****
What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas,
but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.
- Eugene Delacroix
*****
Making beautiful things for everyday use is a wonderful thing to do..
making life flow more easily..
but art confronts life, allowing it to stop and perhaps change direction..
they are completely different.
- Antony Gormley
*****
My contribution to the world is my ability to draw.
I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can.
Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times.
It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic.
- Keith Haring (American pop artist)
*****
A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world.
- Hans Hofmann
*****
The beautiful is in nature, and it is encountered under the most diverse forms of reality.
Once it is found it belongs to art, or rather to the artist who discovers it.
- Gustave Courbet
*****
To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits:
logic and common sense will only interfere.
But once these barriers are broken,
it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.
- Giorgio de Chirico
*****
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist.
- Edward Hopper
*****
An empty canvas is a living wonder.. far lovelier than certain pictures.
- Wassily Kandinsky
*****
I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. /
The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art. /
Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. /
Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active. /
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.
- above quotes by Leonardo da Vinci
*****
I'm not really sure what social message my art carries, if any.
And I don't really want it to carry one.
I'm not interested in the subject matter to try to teach society anything,
or to try to better our world in any way.
- Roy Lichtenstein
*****
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. /
People still think of me as a cartoonist,
but the only thing I lift a pen or pencil for these days is to
sign a contract, a check or an autograph.
- above quotes by Walt Disney
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
- Section Two -
Performing Artists
- 6 quotes -** Musicians **
The music that really turns me on is either running toward God
or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.
- Bono
*****
Man can't do without God.
Just like you're thirsty, you have to drink water.
You just can't go without God.
- Bob Marley
*****
O great creator of being
grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.
- Jim Morrison
Comedy / Humor
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
- Victor Borge
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
If somebody makes me laugh, I'm his slave for life.
- Bette Midler
Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
- Victor Borge
What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
- Yiddish Proverb
If somebody makes me laugh, I'm his slave for life.
- Bette Midler
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ
was no mere man.
Between Him and every other person in the world
there is no possible term of comparison.
Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires.
But on what did we
rest the creation of our genius?
Upon force.
Jesus Christ founded His
empire upon
love,
and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.
- Napoleon Bonaparte