Artist Quotes

The real artist has no idea that he is sacrificing himself for art. He does what he does for one reason and one reason only-he can't help doing it.

I embraced being a pop artist, but I like doing it on my own terms, at my own pace.

I have a more direct avenue to expression as an artist than I ever would as a politician.

My hardest thing was to let go, to be happy for everybody and just to enjoy. And go back to being what you were before you became an artist, and that was just a fan.

At the age of 80, I'm becoming a visual artist. This could be my rebirth.

I have not become the artist I believe I am. I want to become a stadium act. I'm not done at all.

One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible than solipsism.

As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.

To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts - absolute gifts - which have not been acquired by one's own effort. And, moreover, to succeed, the artist much possess the courageous soul.

The body, in 'La Belle Noiseuse,' was the source of the artist's creativity.

As an artist, I've been very fortunate.

Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.

I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. Reid and Universal Music Group have given me the opportunity to manage the companies I have contributed to my whole career. I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community.

Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.

As I get into it more, I want to grow as an artist, as an entertainer, and basically perfect my craft.

There's no greatest moment in the arts. It's a life, it's a continuity thing. You can't have a great moment because it's spiritual. It's a belief, it's a calling. If you're an artist, doing your own thing on your own, it's while you're doing it that counts. It's a process. If you get too elated, you can get too depressed.

They consistently hobble artists' in the name of selling more units then are surprised when the fans don't buy the lukewarm music this produces. So they then drop the artist.

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

If you only believe that you're an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that's quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.

Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works.

I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind.

Now that I'm coming out with my own record people can see I'm a solo artist.

Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you're making a mistake but let you go on with it, that's when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people.

No film critic's going to say it, but 'Madagascar 3' is better than 'The Artist.'

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

It's getting too late in my life to care about the small things. It's getting too late to not be brave, to not live my life fully, to not try to be an artist. Trivial things like how nice your hotel room is, or if you have to be naked for a while, they fade away.