Artist Quotes
-
The artist spends the first part of his life with the dead, the second with the living, and the third with himself.
-
The highest art is always the most religious; and the greatest artist is always a devout man. A scoffing Raphael or Michael Angelo is not conceivable.
-
New songs are why artists go on the road. That's why I go on the road. It's a three-prong play. Writing: You're intrigued. Recording: It brings it to life. And then you want to share it.
-
An artist must eat sparingly and give up a normal way of life.
-
As an artist, you want to play around with mediums and see if you can get the point across in different way.
-
I've never been a die-hard fan, like a crazy fan for an artist.
-
I began to wonder - I knew I was an artist or wanted to be one - but I was wondering whether I really was an artist. I was doing such ordinary things that I could feel the difference. Most people would look at those things and say, 'Well, that's nothing. What did you do that for? That's just a wreck of a car or a wreck of a man. That's nothing. That isn't art.' They don't say that anymore.
-
A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque.
-
No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.
-
Though the artist must remain master of his craft, the surface, at times raised to the highest pitch of loveliness, should transmit to the beholder the sensation which possessed the artist.
-
I'm not an experimental artist. I have no talent for that. I need a certain kind of antecedent form to follow.
-
If you have value as an artist it's probably going to be in your capacity to let things inside you get past things that are placed there to keep you from telling the truth. The more you see things as clearly and coldly as you can, the more value you're going to have.
-
You have a strange relationship with calamity when you're a writer: you write about it; as an artist, you objectify and fetishize it. You render life into material, and that's a creepy thing to do.
-
I was thinking that people have to believe you're crazy in order to take you seriously as an artist.
-
I want to be an artist, not an erotic freak. I don’t want to be sold to the public as a celluloid aphrodisiac.
-
I never considered myself an Americana artist, but I'm a huge fan of old-time music from the States, the recordings that were made in the '20s and '30s. Trying to chase down the exact stylistic trappings of that stuff always felt like a dead end. That spirit of directness and economy, but also the poetic pungency of the writing and almost ugly, or raw, performance - all that seemed like the real message. I've just tried to somehow stay true to that feeling.
-
I know my sound, and I have to be true to who I am as an artist, even though I want be real cool, and make really cool music.
-
I wanted to show that 'I'm sexy'. I wanted to do things that other male solo artists hadn't done before, such as choreography that has a tempting allure.
-
To pronounce something clever and honest is not such a big deal, lots of them have been said and written. For a statement of truth to be effective and for it to make people wiser, it has to be filtered through the soul of a highest quality, the soul of an artist.
-
Traditional graffiti writers have a bunch of rules they like to stick to, and good luck to them, but I didn't become a graffiti artist so I could have somebody else tell me what to do. If you're the type who gets sentimental about people scribbling over your stuff, I suggest graffiti is probably not the right hobby for you.
-
These are very difficult times for new artists. Back in the day, a hit song could really seep into a person's DNA with radio and MTV. A hit today is not the same as a hit twenty years ago. Now there is so much competition, it is very hard to reach the people. The music scene is so overly saturated. There are no gatekeepers like there used to be.
-
I suppose an artist takes the elements of his life and rearranges them and then has them perceived by others as though they were the elements of their lives.
-
It's hard for me to say what would happen if I didn't go to art school. It wasn't that I learned any specific painting or drafting skills at school that I felt I couldn't have taught myself. However there is something quintessentially unique and important that you gain by immersing yourself in ascholastic and creative universe, and being held to certain academic standards while being surrounded by artists of varying disciplines.
-
As a white male in America, I have privilege. As a white male who happens to be an artist with a fan base, I have a platform to spread awareness about that privilege. However, songs about race and privilege are very difficult to A) write and B) dissect as a listener. They're heavy.
