Expressive Quotes

• Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

  Henri Matisse

  Funny, Art, Expression

  "The Christian Science Monitor", quoted in the review of "The Drawings of Henri Matisse" exhibit at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art by Theodore F. Wolff, March 25, 1985.

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• A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Beautiful, Nature, Eye

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.35, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.

  Robert Henri

  Life, Book, Artist

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• I don't know how much more expressive you can get than being a rock and roll singer.

  Robert Plant

  Rocks, Rock And Roll, Singers

  "Robert Plant: Whole lotta luck I found rock and roll". Interview with Becky Anderson, www.cnn.com. September 16, 2010.

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• Nothing at times is more expressive than silence.

  George Eliot

  Silence

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• It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

  Carlisle Floyd

  Art, Opera, Relevant

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• Every time a student walks past a really urgent, expressive piece of architecture that belongs to his college, it can help reassure him that he does have that mind, does have that soul.

  Louis Kahn

  Art, Past, College

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• No writer, no matter how gifted, immortalizes himself unless he has crystallized into expressive and original phrase the eternal sentiments and yearnings of the human heart.

  Alfred de Vigny

  Heart, Phrases, Matter

  Alfred de Vigny (1905). “Cinq Mars ...”

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• There is that indescribable freshness and unconsciousness about an illiterate person that humbles and mocks the power of the noblest expressive genius.

  Walt Whitman

  Education, Humble, Illiterate Person

  Walt Whitman (2012). “Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition”, p.7, Courier Corporation

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• So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.

  Aaron Copland

  Music, Long, Giving

  Aaron Copland, Richard Kostelanetz (2004). “Aaron Copland: A Reader : Selected Writings 1923-1972”, p.32, Psychology Press

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• I've found that in now having experienced what it's like to make records and just through growing up in general that you should be expressive about what's affecting you instead of trying to sing about a subject just for the sake of other people getting something from it.

  Chantal Kreviazuk

  Growing Up, People, Trying

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• Eisenhower had about the most expressive face I ever painted, I guess. Just like an actor's. Very mobile. When he talked, he used all the facial muscles. And he had a great, wide mouth that I liked. When he smiled, it was just like the sun came out.

  Norman Rockwell

  Artist, Actors, Mouths

  "A Rockwell Portrait : An Intimate Biography". Book by Donald Walton (p. 198), 1978.

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• Several speeches were made by the chiefs during the council, all expressive in the highest degree of their friendly disposition towards our government, and their conduct in every particular manifested the sincerity of their declarations.

  William Henry Ashley

  Government, Friendly, Degrees

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• Oppression does not make for hearts as big as all outdoors. Oppression makes us big and small. Expressive and silenced. Deep and dead.

  Cherrie Moraga

  Heart, Doe, Oppression

  Cherríe Moraga (1983). “Loving in the war years: lo que nunca pasó por sus labios”, South End Pr

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• Being Latin parents makes us extremely expressive with our affections.

  Gloria Estefan

  Latin, Parent, Affection

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• The music comes first. When Geoff has made something the inspiration comes automatically. His music is very expressive. But still is is a very difficult process: I have to add something to his music, not push it away. It has to be equal, and I find that very difficult.

  Beth Gibbons

  Inspiration, Add, Firsts

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• I remember that. I was talking to him and I said how great it would be if actors had a tail because I have animals and a tail is so expressive. On a cat you can tell everything. You can tell if they're annoyed. You can tell whether they're scared.

  Christopher Walken

  Cat, Animal, Talking

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• I prefer to leave the paintings to speak for themselves.

  Barnett Newman

  Art, Expression, Leaving

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• Movement has the capacity to take us to the home
  of the soul, the world within for which we have
  no name. Movement reaches our deepest nature,
  and dance creatively expresses it. Through dance,
  we gain new insights into the mystery of our lives.
  When brought forth from the inside and forged by
  the desire to create personal change, dance has the
  profound power to heal the body, psyche and soul.

  Anna Halprin

  Life, Change, Dance

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• After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

  Aldous Huxley

  Motivational, Music, Wisdom

  Music at Night (1931) p. 17

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• Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

  Victor Hugo

  Music, Wisdom, Art

  Victor Hugo (2016). “William Shakespeare”, p.62, Library of Alexandria

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• She's letting out her feelings. The scary thing is not being able to do that. When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble.

  Haruki Murakami

  Expression, Scary, Feelings

  FaceBook post by Haruki Murakami from Nov 15, 2015

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• I can mourn internally, just be quiet about it. I have my moments but I'm not a real, expressive person, especially when it comes to like sadness.

  Faith Evans

  Real, Sadness, Quiet

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• I never approved of talkies. Silent movies were well on their way to developing an entirely new art form. It was not just pantomine, but something wonderfully expressive.

  Lillian Gish

  Art, Way, Silent

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• Food can be expressive and therefore food can be art.

  Grant Achatz

  Art

  Interview with Michael Y. Park, www.epicurious.com. September 27, 2010.

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