Artist Quotes - Page 32

• Lucian Freud's career affirms that the only thing an artist can do is remain true to whatever vision, (lack of) talent, or ideas that happened to pick them in order to be made known to the world.

  Jerry Saltz

  Order, Careers, Ideas

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• Marlene Dumas is one of the two or three most successful female artists alive, if you judge by prices. I've never reviewed her work, because I find nothing in it to get excited about no matter how hard I look.

  Jerry Saltz

  Successful, Two, Judging

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• There's something pleasing about large, well-lit spaces. I love that dealers are willing to take massive chances in order to give this much room to their artists. Most of all, I love that more galleries showing more art gives more artists a shot.

  Jerry Saltz

  Art, Order, Space

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• Context begins with other artists - seniors and mentors.

  Kenneth Noland

  Senior, Mentor

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• Just as people can watch spellbound a circus artist tumbling through the air in a phosphorized costume, so they can listen to a preacher who uses the Word of God to draw attention to himself. But a sensational preacher stimulates the senses and leaves the spirit untouched. Instead of being the way to God, his 'being different' gets in the way.

  Henri Nouwen

  Air, People, Being Different

  "The Search For Applause" by Henri Nouwen, www.christianitytoday.com. 1984.

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• Living in a community with very wounded people, I came to see that I had lived most of my life as a tightrope artist trying to walk on a high, thin cable from one tower to the other, always waiting for the applause when I had not fallen off and broken my leg.

  Henri Nouwen

  Broken, People, Community

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• Only an artist can interpret the meaning of life.

  Novalis

  Art, Meaning Of Life

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• Album sales have collapsed, with few artists making money from albums; touring is more lucrative. But I'm 53 now and won't be able to tour forever, so a logical step is to get into writing film scores. Trouble is, you need to be somewhere which has a big film industry - another reason why I'm thinking about living in California.

  Gary Numan

  Writing, Thinking, California

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• Talent can be developed, gift is God-given. But artists have both.

  Carroll O'Connor

  Talent, Given, God Given Talents

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• The reviewer is a singularly detested enemy because he is, unlike the hapless artist, invulnerable.

  Carroll O'Connor

  Enemy, Reviewers, Scientism

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• I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality, I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say in paint.

  Georgia O'Keeffe

  Art, Flower, People

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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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• The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart.

  George Sand

  Art, Light, Vocation

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• I think it's very important for writers and artists generally to be witnesses to the world, and to be transparent. To let other people speak... to travel... to experience the world. And memorialize it.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Thinking, People, Important

  CNN's Book Chat, www.cnn.com.

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• People have libraries at home, they have bookshelves, they have CDs. And they sort of try, people try to bring great artists into their lives, into their physical houses and sort of live with portions of them. But they're not really deeply engaging with them.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Home, Cds, People

  "Oates Details Writers' Last Days in 'Wild Nights'". Interview with Liane Hansen, www.npr.org. April 27, 2008.

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• I know I'm not the kind of person who's gonna wind up a walking jukebox, like many rock 'n' roll artists. They just play their hits and that's it. That doesn't appeal to me.

  Carlos Santana

  Rocks, Wind, Play

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• The worst thing you can do as an artist is to repeat yourself.

  Conor Oberst

  Worst, Repeats, Can Do

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• I prefer career artists that have spent time honing their craft, as opposed to, 'I won a karaoke contest on a reality show and now I have a record.' That's such a drag. The music that comes out of it is so poor.

  Conor Oberst

  Reality, Careers, Records

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• The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure.

  Ben Okri

  Imagination, Secret, Tools

  Ben Okri (2014). “A Way of Being Free”, p.69, Head of Zeus

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• The painter paints, the musician makes music, the novelist writes novels. But I believe that we all have some influence, not because of the fact that one is an artist, but because we are citizens.

  Jose Saramago

  Believe, Writing, Citizens

  "Still a street-fighting man". Interview with Stephanie Merritt, www.theguardian.com. April 30, 2006.

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• True artists are prophets. I don't want to be that prophetic in that sense because it's so lonely.

  Yoko Ono

  Lonely, Want, Prophet

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• Marriage is a gamble, let's be honest.

  Yoko Ono

  Inspirational, Marriage, Wedding

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• My real background was in art studies. At the beginning I was a painter, then I was this graphic designer, then I became an illustrator, then I was a comic artist. But for me it's a different way of expression, a different field of art. They're not separated; everything for me is related.

  Marjane Satrapi

  Art, Real, Expression

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• The artist's job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery. To intuit it, and recognize that the story-germ has some inherent mystery in it, and sort of midwife that mystery into the story in such a way that it isn't damaged in the process, and may even get heightened or refined.

  George Saunders

  Jobs, Thinking, Stories

  "This Week in Fiction: George Saunders" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. October 4, 2012.

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• Know the names of past and current artists who are most famous for playing their instruments.

  Marilyn vos Savant

  Past, Names, Literature

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