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Quotes about art

621 quotes from 285 people

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Life isn’t long enough for love and art.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965The Moon and Sixpence (1919), Ch. 21, p. 80
- Love
In art honesty is not only the best but the only policy.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965The Razor’s Edge (1943)
- Truth & Lies
Songs can be Trojan horses, taking charged ideas and sneaking past the ego’s defenses and into the open mind.
John Mayerborn 1977Esquire magazine (November 1, 2004)
- Ideas
- Music
Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.
John Mayerborn 1977Mayer, John (2004). “Jimi Hendrix” RollingStone.com (accessed March 21, 2007)
- Failure
- Music
Criticism didn’t really stop us and it shouldn’t ever stop anyone, because critics are only the people who can’t get a record deal themselves.
Paul McCartneyborn 1942The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 96
- Clever Jabs
- Music
Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggests that Can’t Buy Me Love is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That’s going too far.
Paul McCartneyborn 1942The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969), p. 107
- Comedy
- Music
Somone lying back getting a wank absolutely should be something we see in cinema.
Ewan McGregorborn 1971
- Movies
A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956), 13
- Poetry
The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.
James A. Michener1907–1997
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie.
John Milton1608–1674Arcades (1630-1634), line 68
- Music
He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem.
John Milton1608–1674Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)
- Poetry
- Writing
In my music, I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.
Charles Mingus1922–1979Statement to Nat Hentoff , as quoted in California Rock, California Sound: The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California (1979) by Anthony Fawcett, p. 56
- Change
- Music
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
Charles Mingus1922–1979Statement in Mainliner (July 1977), as quoted in Creativity and the writing process (1982) by Olivia Bertagnolli, p. 182
I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.
Joan Miró1893–1983Joan Miró: Selected Writings and Interviews, ed. Margit Rowell (1987)
Any time I make a record it’s followed by a painting period. It’s good crop rotation.
Joni Mitchellborn 1943Woman of Heart and Mind: A Life Story (2003)
- Music