5 Quotes by Donald Barthelme about art

  • Author Donald Barthelme
  • Quote

    Do you feel that the creation of new modes of hysteria is a viable undertaking for the artist of today? Yes ( ) No ( )

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  • Author Donald Barthelme
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    Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, but because it wishes to be art.

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  • Author Donald Barthelme
  • Quote

    Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, rather because it wishes to be art. However much the writer might long to be straightforward, these virtues are no longer available to him. He discovers that in being simple, honest, straightforward, nothing much happens.

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  • Author Donald Barthelme
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    What an artist does, is fail. Any reading of the literature... (I mean the literature of artistic creation), however summary, will persuade you instantly that the paradigmatic artistic experience is that of failure. The actualization fails to meet, equal, the intuition. There is something "out there" which cannot be brought "here". This is standard. I don't mean bad artists, I mean good artists. There is no such thing as a "successful artist" (except, of course, in worldly terms).

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