Quotes on Artist

It betrays hubris on the part of the artist to think his medium is limiting him, and I think we all recognize this.

Author: Steve Albini

As an artist I'd choose the thing that's beautiful more than the one that's true.

Author: Laurie Anderson

I see and write things first as an artist, second as a woman, and third as a New Yorker. All three have built-in perspectives that aren't neutral.

Author: Laurie Anderson

I would hardly call myself an artist in that sense; I doodle, I draw, I'm not a trained artist, I couldn't sit down and do an accurate portrait of anyone.

Author: Rene Auberjonois

An artist cannot do anything slovenly.

Author: Jane Austen

Being a cover artist is not like being a real artist. That's just copying what someone else did.

Author: Sebastian Bach

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

Author: Francis Bacon

I do struggle with how much and in which way, as an artist or celebrity, that you voice your political views.

Author: Kevin Bacon

I knew it would happen. I knew I'd be No. 1. I'm a new artist; I don't know the rules. Nobody told me it wouldn't happen.

Author: Erykah Badu

I believed in myself, and I've always worked very, very hard as an artist, and I am an artist in every sense of the word.

Author: Erykah Badu

I completely take on the risk, the poker game, which being an artist means, and I'm going to try to make a film which honestly reflects what I have in my head.

Author: Antonio Banderas

The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure - if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don't like it, you don't understand and you ought to find out.

Author: Ethel Barrymore

An artist has every right - one may even say a duty - to exhibit his productions as prominently as he can.

Author: Jacques Barzun

I am not a black artist, I am an artist.

Author: Jean-Michel Basquiat

No one should drive a hard bargain with an artist.

Author: Beck

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.

Author: Samuel Beckett

Any artist should be grateful for a naive grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately.

Author: Saul Bellow

The true gourmet, like the true artist, is one of the unhappiest creatures existent. His trouble comes from so seldom finding what he constantly seeks: perfection.

Author: Ludwig Bemelmans

Cease to be a drudge, seek to be an artist.

Author: Mary Bethune

Every man is an artist.

Author: Joseph Beuys

But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.

Author: Theodore Bikel

I wanted to be the perfect artist. I'd do three hours of media interviews a day, going to every radio station I could squeeze in. I'd sign autographs after the show until everybody left.

Author: Clint Black

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.

Author: William Blake

I think we have to bottom out. When the studios jump out of the ring, perhaps the artist can get back in.

Author: Don Bluth

I've always seen myself as sort of this funky, eclectic artist.

Author: Suzy Bogguss

It's like Willie Nelson. You're an artist and you have different styles inside of you.

Author: Suzy Bogguss

One song will launch you, but you don't want to be a one-song artist.

Author: Michael Bolton

The great artist is a slave to his ideals.

Author: Christian Bovee

I think it all comes back to being very selfish as an artist. I mean, I really do just write and record what interests me and I do approach the stage shows in much the same way.

Author: David Bowie

The most important thing for anyone, I think, is to be engaged, whether you're an artist or a journalist is to be engaged in the process at some level.

Author: Billy Bragg

My parents always saw me as an artist, and that greatly influenced me.

Author: Meredith Brooks

I'm having fun just being a musician as well as an artist at this point.

Author: Peabo Bryson

Any artist always has misgivings about calling himself an artist.

Author: Bill Budge

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

Author: Charles Bukowski

Never read bad stuff if you're an artist; it will impair your own game.

Author: James Burke

It keeps me in touch with younger musicians who are constantly saying, 'Have you heard this new artist, or this new guitar player?' It keeps you reaching.

Author: Gary Burton

I was a scam artist in high school for a while.

Author: Scott Caan

To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there's no such thing as perfect.

Author: Alexander Calder

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.

Author: Maria Callas

I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged.

Author: Maria Callas

I wanted nothing less than to be a fiction writer when I was a kid. If you had told me I would be an artist or novelist when I grew up, I would have laughed in your face.

Author: Caleb Carr

Remember I'm an artist. And you know what that means in a court of law. Next worst to an actress.

Author: Joyce Cary

The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all.

Author: John Cassavetes

As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail.

Author: John Cassavetes

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.

Author: Willa Cather

The artist makes things concrete and gives them individuality.

Author: Paul Cezanne

The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world. In this long vigil he often has to vary his methods of stimulation; but in this long vigil he is also himself striving against a continual tendency to sleep.

Author: Marc Chagall

The creative artist seems to be almost the only kind of man that you could never meet on neutral ground. You can only meet him as an artist. He sees nothing objectively because his own ego is always in the foreground of every picture.

Author: Raymond Chandler

The freedom of every artist is essential.

Author: Christo

I think I've grown a lot in the last few years, and I needed to express myself as an artist on this. It wasn't necessarily about going in and making an album chocked full of hit singles... there were a lot of things I did out of the joy and the want to do it.

Author: Terri Clark

An artist can be truly evaluated only after he is dead. At the very 11th hour, he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

Author: Van Cliburn

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

Author: Jean Cocteau

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

Author: Jean Cocteau

Since I was the solo artist as well as the writer for the songs, I figured I had enough credits on it already.

Author: Cy Coleman

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.

Author: Sidonie Colette

With the Ford Foundation grant all of a sudden instead of being an artist that had made a couple of short films, I became a filmmaker who dabbled in the arts.

Author: Bruce Conner

The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure.

Author: Cyril Connolly

The artist one day falls through a hole in the brambles, and from that moment he is following the dark rapids of an underground river which may sometimes flow so near to the surface that the laughing picnic parties are heard above.

Author: Cyril Connolly

There was never any effort made out there to improve the artist.

Author: Jackie Cooper

I don't think there's any artist of any value who doesn't doubt what they're doing.

Author: Francis Coppola

It's very difficult for me to dislike an artist. No matter what he's creating, the fact that he's experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we're in a brotherhood of some kind... we're in it together.

Author: Chick Corea

It is said that no star is a heroine to her makeup artist.

Author: Richard Corliss

That is what the title of artist means: one who perceives more than his fellows, and who records more than he has seen.

Author: Edward Craig

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.

Author: Eugene Delacroix

On the other hand, the artist has much to do in the realm of color construction, which is so little explored and so obscure, and hardly dates back any farther than to the beginning of Impressionism.

Author: Robert Delaunay

A great artist is never poor.

Author: Isak Dinesen

When a young artist is ready, one has to bring him into the limelight.

Author: Placido Domingo

Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.

Author: Lawrence Durrell

The lifestyle that an artist can have, the freedom to wander in the landscape with no real pressure or deadlines, was a very attractive one.

Author: John Dyer

The defining function of the artist is to cherish consciousness.

Author: Max Eastman

It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.

Author: Loren Eiseley

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel - not the way others think you should feel.

Author: Don Ellis

Every artist writes his own autobiography.

Author: Henry Ellis

Every artist was first an amateur.

Author: Ralph Emerson

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I'm going to grow artistically.

Author: Eminem

If you're a musician and an artist, you don't just stop.

Author: Siobhan Fahey

An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why.

Author: William Faulkner

The artist is the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world.

Author: Federico Fellini

Within two weeks of working with her, I realized how good she was for the role because she was absolutely with it and she has got terrific instincts, I think, as an artist, too.

Author: Albert Finney

I didn't really think about becoming a professional artist until high school, when I realized that everything else required too much math.

Author: Phil Foglio

As a fashion designer, I was always aware that I was not an artist, because I was creating something that was made to be sold, marketed, used, and ultimately discarded.

Author: Tom Ford

Why do we pigeonhole and label an artist? It is a sure way of missing the important, the contradictory, the things that make him or her unique.

Author: Lukas Foss

I strongly suggest that we play down basics like who influenced whom, and instead study the way the influence is transformed, in other words: how the artist made it his own.

Author: Lukas Foss

I think it would be nice to sell 15 million albums as a solo artist. I'd have to deal with all the repercussions of that, but that wouldn't be too bad.

Author: Glenn Frey

Yeah, I really like being alive. But I definitely don't have any intentions as an artist.

Author: John Frusciante

A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.

Author: R. Fuller

A record deal doesn't make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

Author: Lady Gaga

But I'm not an artist. Maybe an artist with a small a.

Author: John Galliano

Paul is a very creative artist but I'm more that thorough, meticulous, disciplined nut.

Author: Art Garfunkel

Being an artist means ceasing to take seriously that very serious person we are when we are not an artist.

Author: Jose Gasset

Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.

Author: Theophile Gautier

I want to keep - this seems so corny - I want to keep growing as an artist.

Author: John Glover

Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works.

Author: Alma Gluck

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

Author: Johann Goethe

The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it.

Author: Andy Goldsworthy

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.

Author: Juan Goytisolo

Mike Judge, who I've become friends with over the years never took himself seriously as an artist.

Author: Bill Griffith

The copyright bargain: a balance between protection for the artist and rights for the consumer.

Author: Robin Gross

I became paralyzed as an artist with writer's block.

Author: David Guterson

Everything that Eddie has said about me is the total opposite of what really happened. Eddie says I wanted to be a solo artist. No, Eddie wanted to be a solo artist.

Author: Sammy Hagar

One of the things I want to do as an artist is to connect generations.

Author: Isaac Hanson

Well we took it apart scene by scene. We examined every sentence, every full stop, every comma. He has a most wonderful eye for detail, Roman, and you know, he's a very good artist.

Author: Ronald Harwood

That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.

Author: Ernest Hemingway

As an artist, I understand that, and I value the creative input of the artist.

Author: Charlton Heston

Data is what distinguishes the dilettante from the artist.

Author: George Higgins

I am isolated as an artist, not as a person.

Author: Howard Hodgkin

Style is the most valuable asset of the modern artist. That's probably why so many styles are reported lost or stolen each year.

Author: Brad Holland

Every artist has to grow, and has to challenge themselves with a new form of expression.

Author: Terrence Howard

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.

Author: Langston Hughes

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

Author: Robert Hughes

A great artist is a great man in a great child.

Author: Victor Hugo

When you give an artist a canvas, you shouldn't tell him exactly how much paint to put on it, or exactly how sharp the images should be. You should let the artist get going.

Author: Reed Hundt

Scratch an artist and you surprise a child.

Author: James Huneker

I don't care who's playing. Even if it's my favorite artist, I'm probably not gonna go and see him.

Author: Etta James

There's not a hip-hop artist that didn't snatch of piece of Bob Marley. It's totally impossible.

Author: Wyclef Jean

Chet loved artists. He did. But he was caught up in the system. He had two hats. He had to have 'em because he did two things: he was an artist, and he was an executive.

Author: Waylon Jennings

I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.

Author: Billy Joel

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.

Author: Jasper Johns

I always saw myself as a multi media artist.

Author: Holly Johnson

I just want to make one really good movie a year. And when I die, to know I was honest as an artist.

Author: Milla Jovovich

When I accept a role, I feel that as an artist I have to submit completely to the tutelage of my director. And while I expect to be heard and encouraged and honored, at the end of the day, man, it's the way the director wants it.

Author: Ashley Judd

The first prerogative of an artist in any medium is to make a fool of himself.

Author: Pauline Kael

That freedom that Picasso afforded himself, to be an artist in a huge number of ways, seems to be a huge psychological liberation.

Author: Anish Kapoor

One must not believe any of those mythologies about oneself as an artist.

Author: Anish Kapoor

We live in a fractured world. I've always seen it as my role as an artist to attempt to make wholeness.

Author: Anish Kapoor

I feel the symbolic world is the nub of a problem for an artist.

Author: Anish Kapoor

I've always felt that if one was going to take seriously this vocation as an artist, you have to get beyond that decorative facade.

Author: Anish Kapoor

It's the role of the artist to pursue content.

Author: Anish Kapoor

The great artist is the man who most obviously succeeds in turning his pains to advantage, in letting suffering deepens his understanding and sensibility, in growing through his pains.

Author: Walter Kaufmann

The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.

Author: Elia Kazan

There were a lot of choices to make and I always picked artist. I never once picked doctor, lawyer, firemen or something like that. It was always artist.

Author: Maynard Keenan

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.

Author: Maynard Keenan

Of course, the kids who had never heard of a person called Ben E. King were then aware of the name associated with the song. That gave a tremendous lift to me as an artist.

Author: Ben King

I didn't want to be an artist.

Author: Carole King

The concept that an artist would be revered by popular culture is an immediate dismissal of his relevance as an artist.

Author: Thomas Kinkade

Whoever wants to know something about me - as an artist which alone is significant - they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.

Author: Gustav Klimt

There's a great difference between being popular and being an artist.

Author: Shirley Knight

An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.

Author: Willem Kooning

For us chess players the language of artist is something natural.

Author: Vladimir Kramnik

The procedure was that an artist got a mural and then he would have anywhere from two to ten assistants depending on the size of the mural and how many assistants he needed, or she needed.

Author: Lee Krasner

As I say, I as an abstract artist was active politically.

Author: Lee Krasner

I have never been able to understand the artist whose image never changes.

Author: Lee Krasner

The story that I wanna tell is pretty much about the way I grew up. Being bi-racial, growing up in a big city and being an artist.

Author: Lenny Kravitz

I just say I'm an artist who works with pictures and words.

Author: Barbara Kruger

I'm an artist who works with pictures and words. Sometimes that stuff ends up in different kinds of sites and contexts which determine what it means and looks like.

Author: Barbara Kruger

But it becomes disrespectful when the artist's process is not respected.

Author: Talib Kweli

I commissioned this artist to make these silver tomahawks by hand. Larry Sellers, who plays Cloud Dancing on the show, blessed and cleansed them and all.

Author: Joe Lando

As both a fine artist and a graphic designer, I specialize in the visual presentation of words.

Author: John Langdon

I'm an artist and I can draw very well. I'm amazed that everybody can't draw well because I can do it so effortlessly.

Author: Jerry Lawler

I've just begun to dare to think I perhaps am a bit of an artist.

Author: David Lean