A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.

All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.

Nothing, indeed, is more dangerous to the young artist than any conception of ideal beauty: he is constantly led by it either into weak prettiness or lifeless abstraction: whereas to touch the ideal at all, you must not strip it of vitality.

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

In a budget, how important is art versus music versus athletics versus computer programming? At the end of the day, some of those trade-offs will be made politically.

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

A man willing to work, and unable to find work, is perhaps the saddest sight that fortune’s inequality exhibits under this sun.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

My work as an artist is completely separate from my work as a philanthropist.

I just make the pictures and where they fall is where they fall. If somebody likes them, that’s always nice. And if they don’t like them, then too bad.

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

I believe the right question to ask, respecting all ornament, is simply this; was it done with enjoyment, was the carver happy while he was about it?

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I’ll say it.

No good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases.

Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it.

The soul is your innermost being. The presence that you are beyond form. The consciousness that you are beyond form, that is the soul. That is who you are in essence.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.

Man – a being in search of meaning.

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.

Art’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.

Sometimes I just sit still and enjoy God’s presence.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?

How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.

Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.

If you have a success you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work.

A more secret, sweet, and overpowering beauty appears to man when his heart and mind open to the sentiment of virtue.

It is not your paintings I like, it is your painting.

I don’t have stylistic loyalty. That’s why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.

I love almost everything about my work except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul.

Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.

This man used to go to school with his dog. Then they were separated. His dog graduated!

What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.

People tried to change my concept of what music is. That music is work, but it’s not like that.

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

Europe is so well gardened that it resembles a work of art, a scientific theory, a neat metaphysical system. Man has re-created Europe in his own image.

Oh, this base heart of ours! Hath it not enough tinder in it to set on fire the course of nature? If a spark do but fall into it, any one of our members left to itself would dishonour Christ, deny the Lord that bought us, and turn back into perdition.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a character; there was nothing particularly new about this – death has featured in art and literature since medieval times, and for centuries we have had a fascination with the Grim Reaper.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike.

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.