Art Quotes

"Picasso had a saying - 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' I think what he meant was that you have to internalize something so deeply that it becomes part of your own vision."

"The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the presence of what is there."

"The artist's obligation is to the truth as he perceives it, not to comfort."

"Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you."

"I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit."

"Artists to my mind are the real architects of change."

"Good art often makes you uncomfortable or baffled at first."

"Entertainment culture is about the death of empathy."

"The beautiful thing about fiction is that it can make the familiar strange."

"Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness."

"The art is in the doing, not in the explaining."

"The private sphere is the real sphere of art."

"Art can tell us things about being alive that nothing else can tell us."

"The purpose of art is to delight us and to instruct us."

"Art is the only way to express what words cannot."

"Art without struggle is decoration, not art."

"No less important are the things we choose to leave out."

"Art is supposed to awaken and provoke thought."

"Art means something is happening in the work."

"The antagonism between the life so short and the craft so long."

"A masterpiece is a work that tells the truth about itself."

"Art makes nothing happen, but it reminds us why we are alive."

"Picasso had a phrase - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - I think what he meant was that the great artist doesn't invent a new thing, he steals the best."

"The artist must be able to live on very little air."

"Art is the answer to the question that cannot be asked."

"The greatest artists are always willing to fail."

"I used to play violin in an orchestra, until I lost the feeling."

"Art should be like a limb or organ."

"Art is not concerned with technique alone."

"The cut-up method is not random."