All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.

I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself.

Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.

I’m too busy acting like I’m not Naive. I’ve seen it all, I was here first.

Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another?

Truths and roses have thorns about them.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity – and I don’t mean simple – it’ll be good, and the public will know it.

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

I mean, I feel like you get more bees with honey. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated in my life.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

The more I grow in popularity, the lonelier it gets. Because you don’t really know me. You just know this part of me. You fell in love with that. But it’s way more intricate than what meets the surface.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

You always admire what you really don’t understand.

Really, I have to laugh because there was a whole set of stories that made me sound like the Dragon Lady, you know, ‚tough this and tough that.‘ Then there is this business about ‚gooey.‘ The bottom line is I am a pragmatic idealist.

I am rather inclined to silence.

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.

It’s a funny old world.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

The unyielding resistance of the Cuban patriots is symbolized by our 5 Heroes. They shall never back down! They shall never surrender!

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.

It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.

All nature is but art unknown to thee.

I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.

I see the world in black and white, and I don’t like compromising.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson. It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Sweet is the memory of past troubles.

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.

Power is a complicated word and can take many forms.

Any artist, the work you do, if it’s a painting or if it’s a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else’s life. That’s what’s fun about sharing art.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the ambition of the great painters was to make paintings that were like music, which was then considered as the noblest art.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.

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

Littera scripta manet – ‚The written word will remain‘. That’s true, but it won’t be that much comfort to me.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest.

So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved.