Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.

The thing about being an artist today is you get to develop right in front of people’s eyes before you even put out an album.

Every man, and for stronger reasons, every artist, wants to be recognized. So do I.

I’d been making music that was intended to be like painting, in the sense that it’s environmental, without the customary narrative and episodic quality that music normally has. I called this ‚ambient music.‘ But at the same time I was trying to make visual art become more like music, in that it changed the way that music changes.

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.

The only really committed artist is he who, without refusing to take part in the combat, at least refuses to join the regular armies and remains a freelance.

It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.

Once music ceases to be ephemeral – always disappearing – and becomes instead material… it leaves the condition of traditional music and enters the condition of painting. It becomes a painting, existing as material in space, not immaterial in time.

Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.

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.

Fans are my favorite thing in the world. I’ve never been the type of artist who has that line drawn between their friends and their fans. The line’s always been really blurred for me. I’ll hang out with them after the show. I’ll hang out with them before the show. If I see them in the mall, I’ll stand there and talk to them for 10 minutes.

The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too – eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway – I was a sandwich artist – and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.

Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it ‚the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.‘ The mere imitation, however accurate, of what is in Nature, entitles no man to the sacred name of ‚Artist.‘

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

A record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

The artist part of me always wants to be appreciated. I read every review. But I never wanted to seek validation by awards or anything controlled by politics.

Every album, I make big records. I’m going to always make an anthem. That’s what I do.

I’m no hillbilly singer.

When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.

Obviously, the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I’m watching a Wes Anderson movie, the colour palettes alone, and the way they’re painted, could be art. With music, you’re a little bit limited, of course, because it’s only audio.

Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.

A solution built by an artist serves the artist more than the solution the capitalist comes up with.

As an artist, as a brand, as a rapper, as a musician, you know you got a window and a lot of people, even an athlete; they don’t have no exit strategy. It’s just living in the false reality that it’s going to be like this forever.

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.

I didn’t watch ‚The A-Team‘ movie. I’m an artist. You can’t re-paint a Rembrandt. You can’t duplicate that; I don’t care who you get.

What makes a song last is real content from a mind that is thinking a little bit harder about certain things. A lot of artists don’t really think that hard.

I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity, and that includes all kinds of parts.

The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.

I always felt an outsider.

I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the wren; and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur; and my eyes, like the sherry in the glass, that the guest leaves.

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

I can’t deny that label-support gave me a leg up – though not every successful artist needs it.

Every artist was first an amateur.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.

At my advanced age – I’m now an octogenarian – I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who want to take my picture.

Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It’s rage, it’s creativity, it’s pain, it’s hurt, but it’s the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music.

I love Wiz Khalifa.

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

To be in any way a positive contribution, that’s all anybody wants to be. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. I wanted to be an artist, be a mother. You want to feel that in your life you’ve been of use, in whatever way that comes out.

Perhaps it’s good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he’s happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?

I have more than once in my time woken up feeling like death.

Art is man’s expression of his joy in labor.

I think business has to be stupider. I want to do really straightforward, stupid business – just talk to me like a 4-year-old. And I refuse to negotiate. I do not negotiate. I can collaborate. But I’m an artist, so as soon as you negotiate, you’re being compromised.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.

Van Gogh never made a penny in his entire lifetime. He painted because it was his soul, his excitement. It was what aligned him with his Source of being. It’s the same with me and writing.

Don’t you love it that Prince doesn’t use Twitter? Don’t you think he’s somewhere on a unicorn?

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

I think of myself more as a sportsman than I do an artist.

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

I do love being in my studio. Especially at night.

I used to consider the listener. But now I’m in a space where, if I’m not inspired, I can’t really do the music. I can’t feel it.

I performed in a bowling alley before while people were still bowling. Cut the check, and I will perform anywhere.