Artist Quotes

I have always said to young artists that scholastic training and the studying of art history are crucial to fully developing as an artist.

I've always wanted to be a real universal artist, one that every type of audience could relate to.

Not even the most powerful organs of the press, including Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times, can discover a new artist or certify his work and make it stick. They can only bring you the scores.

I hope my work has inspired young artists. I have always tried to maintain my freedom as an artist and I feel it is one of the main reasons I have been successful.

As an artist, I want a reaction.

I am not a black artist, I am an artist.

'Clown' was written when I couldn't find anyone who believed in me as an artist. Maybe those labels will think twice next time a young songwriter comes along.

Fifty years ago, it was the dream of every bohemian artist to be seen getting out of a limousine wearing blue jeans and sneakers. Today, it's the dream of probably half the people in the country.

Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.

I've always been a fine artist.

The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.

I grew up painting and playing piano so when I was a little kid I thought I was going to be an artist or a painter but my mom had me taking piano lessons for about 10-12 years as a young kid.

The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul.

To give a body and a perfect form to one's thought, this - and only this - is to be an artist.

It's so different now coming out as a new artist today than it was when I came out almost ten years ago. Now, it's all about singles, it's really quick, it's online. I came out when people sold records and they still do today but - I don't know what the key is.

The true gourmet, like the true artist, is one of the unhappiest creatures existent. His trouble comes from so seldom finding what he constantly seeks: perfection.

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas.

The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.

Well, in order for me to be successful... In order to be a great artist - musician, actor, painter, whatever - you must be able to be private in public at all times.

Right now as an artist, what I want to do is be a part of works that are unignorable. I couldn't be less interested in how people receive it, honestly. As long as it's unignorable.

I wanted to be an artist. I was studying art. I wanted to be a great painter. When I went into the Navy, there wasn't much to draw at sea. So I began writing, and I began reading a lot.

In 20 years I had sold more records for RCA than any artist except Elvis Presley.

All the time I'm changing as an artist and as a person.

I just want to make one really good movie a year. And when I die, to know I was honest as an artist.

The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.

The idea of being a painter, I've always thought, is better than being an artist or a sculptor.

I wasn't allowed to grow as an artist. My albums were nicer to look at than to listen to.

An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.

I strongly suggest that we play down basics like who influenced whom, and instead study the way the influence is transformed, in other words: how the artist made it his own.

I so much appreciate it when anybody tries to make something and tries to be an artist - I'm happy to see the work.