Artist Quotes
It is not enough that the artist should be well prepared for the public. The public must be well prepared for what it is going to hear.
Hector Berlioz
My mother's an artist. My father was an artist and so I assumed that was normal growing up in art and the art world and spending our time around the world seeing art, experiencing things. It was great.
Bran Ferren
A creative writer must study carefully the works of his rivals, including the Almighty. He must possess the inborn capacity not only of recombining but of re-creating the given world. In order to do this adequately, avoiding duplication of labor, the artist should know the given world.
Vladimir Nabokov
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.
Tony Kushner
Artist, be brave! Go and make the most of what you do best!
Ana Tzarev
In order to even begin to learn how to play his instrument, it takes the guitarist weeks to build calluses on his fingertips; it takes the saxophonist months to strengthen his lip so that he might play his instrument for only a five-minute stretch; it can take the pianist years to develop dual hand and multiple finger coordination. Why do writers assume they can just “write” with no training whatsoever-and then expect, on their first attempt, to be published internationally? What makes them think they're so much inherently greater, need so much less training than any other artists?
Noah Lukeman
I'm just a manga artist, so I can't stand being scrutinized.
Akira Toriyama
I can’t worry too much about the everyday things. Otherwise I’d lose touch with my own world, that helps me as an artist, but it’s frustrating for the people around me. I’m vaguely functional, but there’s always something slightly off.
Florence Welch
Florence and the Machine
You can't expect to be on MTV and critique George Bush. You can't expect to be on BET or the cover of 'The Source' advocating Jesus Christ or Buddha or Hindu Krishna or Moses. As a conscious rap artist, you have to play in the arena that you're supposed to be in. What is that arena? That arena is the college market. The conscious rap artist woos the college market, even though the college market is the wildest, most sexed-out, drug-driven market in the country, possibly the world.
Lawrence "Kris" Parker
Boogie Down Productions
The streets and the industry are two different things. You could be one super-hot artist in the streets, and you could walk into a corporate building, and people would be like, "Who are you?"
Hakeem Seriki
The moment artists can just do what they love to do then music will go right back to where it used to be. I mean back in the '60s and '70s and '80s, that's what it was.
Akon
I think there are a lot of pictures to make. I sometimes question whether I'm even an artist or just a painter. To me, the making of the pictures is the most important thing.
Martin Mull
At the dressing table, every woman has a chance to be an artist, and art, as Aristotle said, 'completes what nature left unfinished.'
Sofia Villani Scicolone
It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent.
Vincent Van Gogh
It's not that appealing when something sexist happens to you. But if you're strong enough, and you can push that aside and keep your goal in mind and remember that you're doing your job - whatever that is, whether it's a producer or an artist or a mastering engineer - because you love it, then all that stuff falls by the wayside.
Emily Lazar
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.
Salvador Dali
But there's no way round it-commercial success is a mark of failure for a graffiti artist. We're not supposed to be embraced in that way. When you look at how society rewards so many of the wrong people, it's hard not to view financial reimbursement as a badge of self-serving mediocrity.
Banksy
I had my dysfunctions, but music gave me peace and joy. I never felt in tune with the world. My parents always saw me as an artist, and that greatly influenced me. My art was my autonomy.
Meredith Brooks
