Artist Quotes

Something in me knows where I’m going, and - well, painting is a state of being. ... Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.

A student of James McNeill Whistler tells the great artist, 'I tend to paint what I see.' Whistler replies, 'Ah! The shock will come when you see what you paint!

A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.

A painter is a man who paints what he sells; an artist, on the other hand, is a man who sells what he paints.

An artist must forget painting when he paints. That's the only way he will do original work.

Good taste is the first refuge of the non creative. It is the last ditch stand of the artist.

It's not what the artist does that counts; it's what he is.

Zhang Yimou is an artist. Sometimes we did only two or three shots a day because we were waiting for the sun.

I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.

But it becomes disrespectful when the artist's process is not respected.

I've learned a lot about the limits of what I can do, as an artist, or what I'm willing to do. It's a lot of responsibility to carry a show and to speak to people on different levels.

I find linseed oil and white lead the most satisfactory mediums.

To make oneself hated is more difficult than to make oneself loved.

The great scientist dares to differ from accepted 'facts' - think irrationally - let the artist do likewise.

We must not discriminate between things. Where things are concerned there are no class distinctions. We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it.

Artists of all sorts remain youthful for so long, and in many cases attain a grand old age. The explanation is that they live in an almost permanent condition of stimulation and excitement.

Only by examining our personal biases can we truly grow as artists; only by cultivating empathy can we truly grow as people.

In the 1970s when I started in the art world, no self-respecting artist would have stood in line to try to get on a television show. It never would have happened.

It is only after years of struggle and deprivation that the young artist should touch color - and then only in the company of his betters.

I imagine if Spotify becomes something that people are willing to pay for, then I'm sure iTunes will just create their own service, and they're actually fair to artists.

Every artist returns to things. The drawings that you make as a child or as an adolescent and the ideas that you have as a young beginning artist, no doubt they crop up again and again.

Artists are like cockroaches; everything is grist for the mill.

There's no question that many more women artists are showing worldwide now than they were when I was a young woman, and that's really great.

Every artist has to grow, and has to challenge themselves with a new form of expression

The rise of the Internet has caused the demise of the record labels, and has destroyed the music business of old, but it's also created new opportunities for young artists.

The artist is the person who invents the means to bridge between biological inheritance and the environments created by technological innovation.

Every artist loves applause. The praise of his contemporaries is the most valuable part of his recompense.

There were certain expectations that were assumed of me as a young black American 20th-century - then 20th-century artist.

Artists rarely do the same thing over and over again. Art is about the new, doing things in a new way.

An artist is somebody who enters into competition with God.

Artists can no more speak about their work, than plants can speak about horticulture.

Acting, I found, was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

No, my work does not reflect my sexual preferences, it reflects the fact that I feel total freedom as an artist.

Artists are traditionally resistant to labels.

Originality is way overrated. To make, you need to take. All great artists do.

An artist has to look at the future, to see what we can do better.

I wanted to be a poet and/or an artist, but I was very lazy (frightened of failure, I guess) and drank too much.

...the artist treats intuition and nuance with respect and reminds us that a little madness resides in all of us. Artists give voice to feelings, to conflict, to the prism of human experience.

And I like the idea of change. Because I don't see why we should hang a painting on the wall and then just not think of it anymore because it's there like a piece of furniture.

Artist awake or be forever fallen.

An artist must not feel under any constraint.

Every young artist has to do it one way, his [or her] way, and the hell with patterns. Remember who you are and where you are and what you are doing.... And never take advice, including this.

The more freedom artists have to do what they want to do, the more they do what other artists are doing.

If I've made it a little easier for artists to work in violence, great! I've accomplished something.

I had to come to terms with my failure as an artist... I had to find a way for myself.

For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not.

No artist will tolerate the world for one second as it is.

We are artists, because God is.

At the age of 80, I'm becoming a visual artist. This could be my rebirth.

Women and egoistic artists entertain a feeling towards science that is something composed of envy and sentimentality.