Quotes about art
621 quotes from 285 people
The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.
André Gide1869–1951Journal, entry for 23 November 1940All art is contemporary, if it’s alive. And if it’s not alive, what’s the point of it?
David Hockney1937–2026Interview with Mark Feeney, “David Hockney keeps seeking new avenues of exploration” Boston Globe (26 February 2006)Music is the universal language of mankind — poetry their universal pastime and delight.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Outre-Mer (1835).The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.
Neil Gaimanborn 1960“Gunpowder treason and plot” Blog entry (5 Nov 2004)Like art, revolutions come from combining what exists into what has never existed before.
Gloria Steinem1934–2026Moving Beyond Words (1994), Part 4: The Masculinization of Wealth, p. 196She left me because of my many faults; I left her because I couldn’t talk movies with her.
Jean-Luc Godard1930–2022On his first wife Anna Karina, as quoted in “An Exile in Paradise” by Richard Brody, The New Yorker (20 November 2000)To describe externals, you become a scientist. To describe experience, you become an artist.
Timothy Leary1920–1996Changing My Mind, Among Others: Lifetime Writings (1982), p. 76Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers.
Willa Cather1873–1947“Four Letters: Escapism” first published in Commonweal (17 April 1936)A cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing day after day without repeating himself.
Charles M. Schulz1922–2000You Don’t Look 35, Charlie Brown! (1985)An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality.
Tom Stoppard1937–2025Travesties (1974), Act IPoets are all who love, who feel great truths,
And tell them; and the truth of truths is love.
Philip James Bailey1816–1902Festus (1839), Scene XVI, The Hesperian Sphere
Frank Zappa1940–1993Oui interview (1979)
W. H. Auden1907–1973The Dyer’s Hand, and Other Essays (1962)
Werner Herzogborn 1942Herzog on Herzog (2002)
Steven Wrightborn 1955Steven Wright Special (1985)