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Quotes about art

621 quotes from 285 people

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To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art; men can only make us feel small in the wrong way.
E. M. Forster1879–1970Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)
When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power.
J. R. R. Tolkien1892–1973On Fairy-Stories (1939)
A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.
E. M. Forster1879–1970Two Cheers for Democracy (1951), “Anonymity: An Enquiry”
- Poetry
- Truth & Lies
I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.
Alfred Hitchcock1899–1980Newsweek (11 June 1956).
- Comedy
- Movies
The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people.
Norman Mailer1923–2007“Hip, Hell, and the Navigator” in Western Review No. 23 (Winter 1959); republished in Conversations with Norman Mailer (1988) edited by J. Michael Lennon.
- Morality
When people ask me what I think is my best work, it’s the bus. There’re lots of books, but there’s only one bus.
KKKen Kesey1935–2001Trip of a Lifetime (1999)
- Writing
The creative personality never remains fixed on the first world it discovers. It never resigns itself to anything.
Anaïs Nin1903–1977The Novel of the Future (1969)
It’s said that Chaplin wanted you to like him, but Keaton didn’t care. I think he cared, but was too proud to ask.
Roger Ebert1942–2013The Great Movies Essay Collections, Vol. II (2005), p. 94
- Movies
- Pride
I must Create a System, or be enslav’d by another Man’s;
I will not Reason and Compare: my business is to Create.
William Blake1757–1827Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 1, plate 10, lines 20-21 The Words of Los
- Freedom
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
I wouldn’t wear a tie-dyed tee-shirt unless it was dyed with the urine of Phil Collins and the blood of Jerry Garcia.
KCKurt Cobain1967–1994As quoted in Melody Maker (18 July 1992)
- Clever Jabs
- Music
I came to the conclusion many years ago that almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.
Evelyn Waugh1903–1966Decline and Fall (1928)
- Comedy
Great artists make the roads; good teachers and good companions can point them out. But there ain’t no free rides, baby.
Ursula K. Le Guin1929–2018The Language of the Night (1979)
Art today is a new kind of instrument, an instrument for modifying consciousness and organizing new modes of sensibility.
Susan Sontag1933–2004Against Interpretation and Other Essays (1966), “One culture and the new sensibility”, p. 296
People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around — the music and the ideas.
Bob Dylanborn 1941The Guardian (13 February 1992)
- Ideas
- Music