Quotes About Art and The Arts

Go into the arts.  I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories.  Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. ~ Pablo Picasso

Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced. ~ Leo Tolstoy

The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a
man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.  ~ Louis Nizer

“When I was a child my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll be the pope.' Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.” ~ Pablo Picasso

“Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. It's a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are a spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be an artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see.”  ~ Ann Patchett, Bel Canto

“Are you a born writer?  Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace?  In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don't do it. It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself,.  You hurt your children.  You hurt me.  You hurt the planet. You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor.  It's a gift to the world and every being in it.  Don't cheat us of your contribution.  Give us what you've got.”  ~ Steven Pressfield. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles.

"A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art. Emotion is the starting point, the beginning and the end.
Craftsmanship and technique are in the middle." ~ Paul Czezanne

“If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.”  ~ Yann Martel,  Life of Pi 

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ” ~ Ray Bradbury 

Do you have a favorite artistic quote?  Share it with us and we'll add it to our list.