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Quotes about art

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T.V. has made going to the theatre seem pointless, photography has pretty much killed painting but graffiti has remained gloriously unspoilt by progress.
BBanksyborn 1973Wall and Piece (2007)
- Photography
- Television
It is not enough to demand insight and informative images of reality from the theater. Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality.
Bertolt Brecht1898–1956Essays on the Art of Theater (1954).
In all great poetry there is a kind of “kenosis” of the understanding, a self-emptying of the tongue. Here language points away from itself to something greater than itself.
L. P. Jacks1860–1955The Usurpation Of Language (1910)
- Poetry
For me, Art is the restoration of order. It may discuss all sort of terrible things, but there must be satisfaction at the end. A little bit of hunger, but also satisfaction.
Toni Morrison1931–2019Interview with Don Swaim (1987)
It’s an abominable place. If there was an Old Testamental God, he would do his job and wipe the place out. The only bad thing is that some really good restaurants would go up as well.
Terry Gilliamborn 1940About Hollywood. As quoted in the New York Times article Terry Gilliam’s Feel-Good Endings (14 August 2005)
- Clever Jabs
- Movies
Freedom of expression is a very essential condition for me to make any art. Also, it is an essential value for my life. I have to protect this right and also to fight for the possibility.
Ai Weiweiborn 1957“Artist Ai Weiwei: China Crushes Dissenting Voices,” in: Fox News, June 11, 2012.
- Freedom
The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.
Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849The Philosophy of Composition (1846), p.122 Line 17
- Life & Death
- Poetry
The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.
Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007A Man Without a Country (2005)
In its relation to the reality of daily life, the high culture of the past was many things⁠—opposition and adornment, outcry and resignation. But it was also the appearance of the realm of freedom: the refusal to behave.
Herbert Marcuse1898–1979One-Dimensional Man (1964), p. 71
- Freedom
I was born with music inside me.
Ray Charles1930–2004Brother Ray: Ray Charles’ Own Story (1978), p. 8
- Music
A light here required a shadow there.
Virginia Woolf1882–1941To the Lighthouse (1927), Part I, Ch. 9
Everything is art. Everything is politics.
Ai Weiweiborn 1957Coonan, Clifford. “An Artist’s Struggle for Justice in China.” Independent, February 27, 2010.
- Politics
What is Art, monsieur, but Nature concentrated?
Honoré de Balzac1799–1850Lost Illusions, Part II: A Distinguished Provincial at Paris (1839), tr. Ellen Marriage, ch. I
- Nature
You gave me your mud and I have turned it to gold.
Charles Baudelaire1821–1867“Ébauche d’un épilogue pour la 2e édition,” Les Fleurs du Mal (1861), Appendice II: Autres pièces
My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life.
Edith Sitwell1887–1964“Some Notes on My Poetry”. Collected Poems (1957)
- Poetry