Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts – the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed – it is a process of elimination.

One of the things you do when you make a piece of art is you try to make the world you’d rather be in.

I create stars.

It seems almost backwards to me that my music seems the more emotional outlet, and the art stuff seems more about ideas.

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?

Rhyme patterns are nothing without meanings to the words. A lot of rappers can do those flows, but the raps aren’t really about anything – which is cool sometimes, but to have the flow and the message is one of my favorite things.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

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

I never look at my watch when I’m sketching!

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

‚The Lady’s World‘ should be made the recognized organ for the expression of women’s opinions on all subjects of literature, art and modern life, and yet it should be a magazine that men could read with pleasure.

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

I love all of the arts. I love motion pictures. I love stage. I love theater.

With all due respect, the Mona Lisa is overrated.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

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.

Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

Silence is more eloquent than words.

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.

All art really does is keep you focused on questions of humanity, and it really is about how do we get on with our maker.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

I am an anarchist in politics and an impressionist in art as well as a symbolist in literature. Not that I understand what these terms mean, but I take them to be all merely synonyms of pessimist.

Nations consist of people. And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.

Great art is the contempt of a great man for small art.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you’re going to be a second-rate artist.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations.

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

All good art is an indiscretion.

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography.

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.

Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be.

Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, ‚What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?‘ And, ‚How does creativity apply across the board?‘

Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.

I’ve started doing book reviews for Barnes & Noble! They saw that I did a lot of book reviews on the site, and they figured that it might not be a bad thing if they got me to do some for them as well. I gave them five categories I’d be interested in reviewing, from art to fiction to music.

I’m looking for backing for an unauthorized auto-biography that I am writing. Hopefully, this will sell in such huge numbers that I will be able to sue myself for an extraordinary amount of money and finance the film version in which I will play everybody.

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

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.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

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

I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.

I draw from the crowd a lot.