A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

● Home » Topics » A Topics

Art Quotes by Famous Authors

It’s no good writing if God hasn’t given you talent

1. “It’s no good writing if God hasn’t given you talent. People will just laugh.”

A poet must be a psychologist but a secret one:

2. “A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only the phenomena themselves in full bloom or as they fade away.”

As for work without it without painstaking work any writer

3. “As for work, without it, without painstaking work, any writer or artist definitely remains a dilettante; there’s no point in waiting for so-called blissful moments, for inspiration; if it comes, so much the better – but you keep working anyway.”

Art if one employs this term in the broad sense

4. “Art, if one employs this term in the broad sense that includes poetry within its realm, is an art of creation laden with ideals, located at the very core of the life of a people, defining the spiritual and moral shape of that life.”

It’s all romanticism nonsense rottenness art

5. “It’s all romanticism, nonsense, rottenness, art.”

Teaching is a performance art

6. “Teaching is a performance art.”

Rule of art: Can’t kills creativity

7. “Rule of art: Can’t kills creativity!”

A society that forgets about art risks losing its soul

8. “A society that forgets about art risks losing its soul.”

Nefertiti is like Athena born from the brow of Zeus

9. “Nefertiti is like Athena born from the brow of Zeus, a head-heavy armored goddess. She is beautiful but desexed.”

Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera theater

10. “Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera, theater, music and dance are thriving all over the world, but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s.”

My advice to the reader approaching a poem is to

11. “My advice to the reader approaching a poem is to make the mind still and blank. Let the poem speak. This charged quiet mimics the blank space ringing the printed poem, the nothing out of which something takes shape.”

Poetry is the way into a spiritual vision of society

12. “Poetry is the way into a spiritual vision of society and the universe.”

The smouldering eroticism of great European actresses like Jeanne Moreau

13. “The smouldering eroticism of great European actresses like Jeanne Moreau demonstrated to my generations women’s archetypal mystery and glamour, completely missing from the totalitarian world-view of the misogynist Foucault. For me, the big French D is not Derrida, but Deneuve.”

Cinema is the culmination of the obsessive mechanistic male drive

14. “Cinema is the culmination of the obsessive, mechanistic male drive in western culture. The movie projector is an Apollonian straight-shooter, demonstrating the link between aggression and art. Every pictorial framing is a ritual limitation, a barred precinct.”

Visionary idealism is a male art form The lesbian aesthete

15. “Visionary idealism is a male art form. The lesbian aesthete does not exist. But if there were one, she would have learned from the perverse male mind.”

Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make

16. “Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion. Beauty halts and freezes the melting flux of nature.”

One of the main reasons I am so drawn to

17. “One of the main reasons I am so drawn to Hitchcock is that he planned his shots way in advance on story-boards, which he designed like classic paintings (he was an art connoisseur). It's why he found shooting on set boring - because he had already composed the film in his head.”

All great stars are competitive That’s a sign of a

18. “All great stars are competitive. That’s a sign of a true artist – if you don’t have the fire of competition deep down inside, you’re never going to achieve anything. You have to want to be king of the heap.”

The born-yesterday French-besotted faddists addicted sniffers of wet printer’s ink

19. “The born-yesterday French-besotted faddists, addicted sniffers of wet printer’s ink, think they’re starting on the ground floor; so they’re condemned to another hundred years of trial and error. The rest of us can safely ignore them.”

The 1990s after the reign of terror of academic vandalism

20. “The 1990s, after the reign of terror of academic vandalism, will be a decade of restoration: restoration of meaning, value, beauty, pleasure, and emotion to art and restoration of art to its audience.”

Art is something out of the ordinary commenting on the

21. “Art is something out of the ordinary commenting on the ordinary.”

Madonna remains the most visible performer on the planet as

22. “Madonna remains the most visible performer on the planet, as well as one of the wealthiest, but would anyone seriously say that artistic self-development is her primary motivating principle? She is too busy with Kabbalah, fashion merchandising, adoption melodramas, the gym, and ill-starred horseback riding to study art.”

Ballet is the body rising Ballet is ceremonial and hieratic

23. “Ballet is the body rising. Ballet is ceremonial and hieratic. Its disdain for the commonplace material world is the source of its authority and glamour.”

The greatest honor that can be paid to the work

24. “The greatest honor that can be paid to the work of art, on its pedestal of ritual display, is to describe it with sensory completeness. We need a science of description. Criticism is ceremonial revivification.”

In an era ruled by materialism and unstable geopolitics art

25. “In an era ruled by materialism and unstable geopolitics, art must be restored to the center of public education.”

I want to promote the introduction of art history in

26. “I want to promote the introduction of art history in primary schools and to convince the general public that, even in a period of economic crisis, arts funding is an absolute necessity at the federal, state, and local levels.”

Literature and art are never created for scholars but for

27. “Literature and art are never created for scholars but for a universal audience. If academics cannot see that audience, they cannot see art.”

Criticism at its best is re-creative not spirit-killing

28. “Criticism at its best is re-creative, not spirit-killing.”

We will never get great art from women if their

29. “We will never get great art from women if their education exposes them only to the second-rate and if the idea of greatness itself is denied. Greatness is not a white male trick. Every important world civilization has defined its artistic tradition in elitist terms of distinction and excellence.”

Ever since Romanticism an oppositional mode artists have the right

30. “Ever since Romanticism, an oppositional mode, artists have the right, and indeed the duty, to attack social convention. But it is ridiculous and in fact self-infantilizing for them to expect to be financially supported by the general public whom they are insulting.”

I cannot be convinced that great artists are moralists Art

31. “I cannot be convinced that great artists are moralists. Art is first appearances, then meaning.”

Only utopian liberals could be surprised that the Nazis were

32. “Only utopian liberals could be surprised that the Nazis were art connoisseurs.”

Elegance is reduction simplification condensation It is spare stark sleek

33. “Elegance is reduction, simplification, condensation. It is spare, stark, sleek. Elegance is cultivated abstraction. The source of Greek and Roman classicism – clarity, order, proportion, balance – is in Egypt.”

Because most of my career in the classroom has been

34. “Because most of my career in the classroom has been at art schools (beginning at Bennington in the 1970s), I am hyper-aware of the often grotesque disconnect between commentary on the arts and the actual practice or production of the arts.”

As a major contemporary composer Madonna should not let the

35. “As a major contemporary composer, Madonna should not let the eye dictate to the ear.”

Capitalism is an art form

36. “Capitalism is an art form.”

Capitalism is an art form an Apollonian fabrication to rival

37. “Capitalism is an art form, an Apollonian fabrication to rival nature. It is hypocritical for feminists and intellectuals to enjoy the pleasures and conveniences of capitalism while sneering at it. Everyone born into capitalism has incurred a debt to it. Give Caesar his due.”

The only way to teach focus is to present the

38. “The only way to teach focus is to present the eye with opportunities for steady perception – best supplied by the contemplation of art. Looking at art requires stillness and receptivity, which realign our senses and produce a magical tranquillity.”

The Dionysian is no picnic

39. “The Dionysian is no picnic.”

Computer enhancement has spread to still photography in advertisements fashion

40. “Computer enhancement has spread to still photography in advertisements, fashion pictorials, and magazine covers, where the human figure and face are subtly elongated or remodeled at will. Caricature is our ruling mode.”

To whom does he owe ultimate responsibility? Since Romanticism we

41. “To whom does he owe ultimate responsibility? Since Romanticism, we have expected the artist not to celebrate God, king, family, and established values but to break taboos, to explore his or her deepest, most socially forbidden self.”

Modern bodybuilding is ritual religion sport art and science awash

42. “Modern bodybuilding is ritual, religion, sport, art, and science, awash in Western chemistry and mathematics. Defying nature, it surpasses it.”

The Gothic tradition was begun by Ann Radcliffe a rare

43. “The Gothic tradition was begun by Ann Radcliffe, a rare example of a woman creating an artistic style.”

Last time I checked there were no Americans at all

44. “Last time I checked, there were no Americans at all in Renaissance art.”

As a longtime fan of talk radio I'm very worried

45. “As a longtime fan of talk radio, I'm very worried about the low opinion that conservative hosts and callers have of the American artist. Art is portrayed as a scam, a rip-off and snow job pushed by snobbish elites.”

Obama’s folksy come-on is as bad as Madonna’s faux British

46. “Obama’s folksy come-on is as bad as Madonna’s faux British – and both are in need of fresh inspiration.”

How many modern transsexuals are unacknowledged shamans? Perhaps it is

47. “How many modern transsexuals are unacknowledged shamans? Perhaps it is to poets they should go for counsel, rather than surgeons.”

An aesthete does not necessarily dress well or collect art

48. “An aesthete does not necessarily dress well or collect art works: an aesthete is one who lives by the eye.”

There is no true expertise in the humanities without knowing

49. “There is no true expertise in the humanities without knowing all of the humanities. Art is a vast, ancient interconnected web-work, a fabricated tradition. Over-concentration on any one point is a distortion.”

Lacan is a tyrant who must be driven from our

50. “Lacan is a tyrant who must be driven from our shores. Narrowly trained English professors who know nothing of art history or popular culture think they can just wade in with Lacan and trash everything in sight.”

Birthdays

Mark Manson 1984

Morgan Housel 1984

Deaths

Charles Bukowski 1994

New Authors

John D. Rockefeller

Andrew Carnegie

Margaret Fuller

Top Authors

Albert Einstein

William Shakespeare

Eleanor Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Winston Churchill

Martin Luther King Jr.

Popular Topics