ART QUOTES XIV

quotations about art

Art quote

The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.

SHERWOOD ANDERSON

letter to his son John, 1927

Tags: Sherwood Anderson


The ordinary bloke will not voluntarily pay for "art" that leaves him unmoved--if he does pay for it, the money has to be conned out of him, by taxes and such.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN

Stranger in a Strange Land

Tags: Robert A. Heinlein


It's frightening for one artist to see another one, any other one turn away from art.

SAMUEL R. DELANY

Dhalgren

Tags: Samuel R. Delany, artists


Making art is dealing with people on your own terms. The ideal way of using people is using them like clay, but that being out of the question, except for lunatics and leaders, art is a good alternative.

LUCAS SAMARAS

"Another Autointerview", Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings


Art is but a mirror, which gives back what is cast on its surface faithfully only while unsullied.

ELIZA COOK

Diamond Dust

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Art is long, and the talk about it is even longer.

WILLIAM JOHN LOCKE

attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes

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Art is not imitation but illusion.

CHARLES READE

Christie Johnstone

Tags: Charles Reade, illusion


The purpose of art ... is not to reflect life but to organize it, to build it.

YEVGENY ZAMYATIN

The Goal

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Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth.

THEODOR W. ADORNO

Minima Moralia

Tags: magic, truth


Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.

JOHN LUBBOCK

The Pleasures of Life

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Great works of art are only great because they are accessible and comprehensible to everyone.

LEO TOLSTOY

What Is Art?

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It seems to me that the arts are rather flourishing. There's an awful lot of bad art about because of this, but that's true of every great era. I'm sure there was a lot dreadful art in the Renaissance that we fortunately don't see today.

LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS

The Atlantic, Oct. 15, 1997

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Perhaps there is no other way of reaching some understanding of being than through art? Writers themselves don't analyze what they do; to analyze would be to look down while crossing a canyon on a tightrope. To say this is not to mystify the process of writing but to make an image out of the intense inner concentration the writer must have to cross the chasms of the aleatory and make them the word's own, as an explorer plants a flag.

NADINE GORDIMER

Nobel Lecture, Dec. 7, 1991

Tags: Nadine Gordimer, writing


The art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.

WALT WHITMAN

preface, Leaves of Grass

Tags: Walt Whitman, simplicity


Art is the Mirror of our betrayed ideals.

DORIS LESSING

The Golden Notebook

Tags: Doris Lessing, idealism


If you are really creatively engaged with the thing we call ART, it is a 24/7 preoccupation. It can and does seep into all areas of your life.

JAMES GUPPY

"Judging art is a classic business", Echo Netdaily, March 16, 2016


The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art. Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.

MAXIM GORKY

Untimely Thoughts

Tags: Maxim Gorky, soul


I'd always thought of art as something that was expressed through certain tools: painting, sculpture, photography, writing, film, music, architecture. And yes, performance. But this performance went beyond performance. This was life.

MARINA ABRAMOVIC

Walk Through Walls: A Memoir

Tags: Marina Abramovic


The artist's path sometimes is slippery as well. I just have to stay on it.

KRISHNA MATHIAS

"With preparation, making art is inevitable", Press of Atlantic City, March 8, 2016


In the haunted house of life, art is the only stair that doesn't creak.

TOM ROBBINS

Skinny Legs and All

Tags: Tom Robbins, life