14,373 Quotes About Art

Sometimes I think that in the end all art is selfish, that it won't necessarily change other people's minds-but whatever it changes, you yourself knows best.

Whenever we come across a famous painting by an acclaimed artist, we tend to reason with ourselves. That it ought to be good, for everyone thinks highly of it. But had we not known who the artist was, we wouldn’t have appreciated the work that much. We don’t know whom this society and the media would put on a pedestal next. It could very well be you.

[I]t was [Barnett] Newman who made the famously wry remark, “Aesthetics is for the artist as ornithology is for the birds,

The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds

I’ve grown up defined by this desperate, undeniable, ‘can’t breathe’ kind of space inside of myself and I’m afraid that the diagnosis is fatal.

Believe that you can do it cause you can do it.

When the writer (or the artist in general) says he has worked without giving any thought to the rules of the process, he simply means he was working without realizing he knew the rules.

As many people are in turmoil, they happen to put many substantial questions. By incessantly asking themselves what it means "to be essential," they start wondering whether "usefulness" has a key function in their life. It is true; many people can only survive through necessary and useful effects. But can we dispel "unusefulness" as worthless? For some, art and play may be “useless” but, yet, are fundamental ways and means for survival. ("Corporeal prison")

Story is the umbilical cord that connects us to the past, present, and future. Family. Story is a relationship between the teller and the listener, a responsibility. . . . Story is an affirmation of our ties to one another.