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Quotes about art

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I’m gay in my art and straight in my life.
James Francoborn 1978fourtwonine magazine Interview (2015)
- Sex
I have never seen the film, but by all accounts, it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it’s terrific.
Michael Caineborn 1933On Jaws: The Revenge (1987); interview in Cosmopolitan, cited in The Salina Journal (4 December 1994), p. 16
- Comedy
- Movies
The Western is our genre in the United States of America. The English have Shakespeare, the French have Molière, the Russians have Chekhov, but we have the Western.
Robert Duvall1931–2026“Robert Duvall reflects on The Godfather in final USA TODAY interview” by Patrick Ryan, in USA Today (16 February 2026)
- America
- Movies
I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!
Jane Austen1775–1817Pride and Prejudice (1813), Volume I, Chapter IXIn context
- Love
- Poetry
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IIn context
- Comedy
- Poetry
Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas⁠—only I don’t exactly know what they are!
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IIn context
- Ideas
- Poetry
‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said,
‘To talk of many things:
Of shoes⁠—and ships⁠—and sealing-wax⁠—
Of cabbages⁠—and kings⁠—
And why the sea is boiling hot⁠—
And whether pigs have wings.’
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter IVIn context
- Poetry
- Talking
Ever drifting down the stream⁠—
Lingering in the golden gleam⁠—
Life, what is it but a dream?
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter XIIIn context
- Life & Death
- Poetry
It is a symbol of Irish art. The cracked lookingglass of a servant.
James Joyce1882–1941Ulysses (1922), Part I, Episode 1In context
I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use⁠—silence, exile and cunning.
James Joyce1882–1941A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Chapter V (3 of 3)In context
- Freedom
- Religion
Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
James Joyce1882–1941A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Chapter V (3 of 3)In context
- Experience