Starving Artist Quotes

• I remembered my New Orleans days, living on two five-cent candy bars a day for weeks at a time in order to have leisure to write. But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it. A man's soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.

  Charles Bukowski

  Art, Drinking, Writing

  "Factotum". Book by Charles Bukowski, Ch. 29, 1975.

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• The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.

  Willem de Kooning

  Time, Poverty, Trouble

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• Starving artist' is acceptable at age 20, suspect at age 40, and problematical at age 60.

  Robert Genn

  Artist, Survival, Age

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• Another year is fast approaching. Go be that starving artist you’re afraid to be. Open up that journal and get poetic finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel. You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put here to be part of a vast organism to explore and create. Stop putting it off. The world has much more to offer than what’s on 15 televisions at TGI Fridays. Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene. Be the change you want to see in the world.

  Jason Mraz

  Inspirational, Life, Friday

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• I am, as they say, the classic starving artist.

  Cheryl Strayed

  Artist, Classic, Starving

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• I realised the bohemian life was not for me. I would look around at my friends, living like starving artists, and wonder, 'Where's the art?' They weren't doing anything. And there was so much interesting stuff to do, so much fun to be had... maybe I could even quit renting.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Art, Fun, Interesting

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• I don't know a lot of writers, even writers who have been on the bestseller list for a few weeks, or writers who have gotten movie options, who can live on just their writing income. Once you break it down to the years it took to write the book, place it, promote it, and you pay the agent, pay the taxes, the annual income is not enough to live on comfortably. I do not have a starving artist inclination. I'm from the working class. I don't feel creative unless I feel like my house is going to be there and I'm going to be fed. I can't worry about money and write. Maybe some people can.

  Debra Monroe

  Book, Writing, Artist

  Source: therumpus.net

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• In college I took an acting class as a joke. It sounded like something fun and easy at the time. I had originally wanted to go to art school, but I gave all that up because I didn't want to be a starving artist.

  Michael Graziadei

  Art, Fun, School

  Source: soaps.sheknows.com

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• I didn't really go the starving-artist route. I kind of went and did massive, commercial things.

  Ashton Kutcher

  Artist, Kind, Starving

  "Ashton Kutcher On Mila Kunis: ‘I Am Going To Do Everything In My Power To Have This Relationship Be Private’" by Erin Clements, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 20, 2013.

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• I'm an entrepreneur, a businessman. I've got a lot of money, and that doesn't go very well with the whole 'starving artist in a garret' routine.

  Felix Dennis

  Artist, Entrepreneur, Routine

  "Felix Dennis talks iPad poetry, Apple approvals and tablets for the elderly". Interview with Stuart Dredge, www.theguardian.com. September 12, 2011.

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• It's really hard to find materials. Also, prices of metal have gone completely through the roof, insanely expensive. And if you go to a dictionary and look up starving artist, you'll see my picture.

  Z'EV

  Artist, Looks, Gone

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• When I was writing my first novel a friend told me I should apply for a grant from the government that was offered to support starving artists. I can't tell you how much this deeply offended me. I told her in very clear language that I thought it was ridiculous to think that other Americans ought to pay for me to chase my dream. Anybody who understands pride and self-determination gets this. So I bartended at night, I wrote during the day, and I paid for my own damn insurance. I didn't expect anybody else to pick it up for me.

  Vince Flynn

  Dream, Writing, Pride

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• In my early days, I was about 145 pounds. I was really a starving artist; the poster child for starving artists.

  Creed Bratton

  Children, Artist, Pounds

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