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.

I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‚real life‘ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

I’ve always loved the idea of playing Black Adam.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

There’s no difference between movies and television. None at all. Except in a lot of cases, television’s much better than movies.

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.

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

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you’d be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

My friend James Cameron and I made three films together – True Lies, The Terminator and Terminator 2. Of course, that was during his early, low-budget, art-house period.

I used to like to set different film clips to classical music, not even my own songs, but make little movies.

I’ve never been that much of a money guy. I’m more of a film guy, and most of the money I’ve made is in defense of trying to keep creative control of my movies.

If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.

My folks always let me go to the movies every Saturday. We were really motion-picture goers.

I just make good movies. That’s the way I thank my fans.

I cry very easily. It can be a movie, a phone conversation, a sunset – tears are words waiting to be written.

I respect Drake not only as a creative person but as a business mind as well. I think Drake’s important.

I’m a trained fine artist. I went to art school from the time I was 5 years old. I was, like, a prodigy out of Chicago. I’d been in national competitions from the age of 14.

I really wanted to be a model when I was little. I loved photography, and I loved being on camera. But I was short and chubby, so I couldn’t. Anyway, being an artist is way more interesting than just being a model because it’s about you and what you want to be. You’re not being treated like a clothes hanger.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

I’ve just finished my 20th book this past year and I’m working on my 21st book about the Middle East right now that I’ll finish this year. And I get up early in the morning and when I get tired of the computer and tired of doing research, I walk 20 steps out to my woodshop and I either build furniture or paint paintings. I’m an artist too.

The artist in me cries out for design.

Before ever meeting Priyanka Chopra, I had heard her name coming out of Bollywood and was impressed: she was beautiful, talented, had made nearly 50 movies, earned multiple awards – a massive star.

Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match.

Nobody should come to the movies unless he believes in heroes.

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.

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

I’ve always loved the showmanship of professional wrestling. While I love making movies, I love that platform, too.

Every artist wants something different out the game.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

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

For so many people, television and movies may be the only way they understand people who aren’t like them.

Being an artist doesn’t just mean you have a song. That doesn’t make you an artist. The word ‚artist‘ means so many different things, and I feel like to be a real one, you really have to do it all. The people that I think of as artists – Tyler the Creator, Childish Gambino, Kanye West – are doing the most.

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

The little may contrast with the great, in painting, but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast; but there are also colors contrary to each other, that is, which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

I paint; I draw and paint – I’ve been doing that since I was in third grade, drawing realistically and then changing to abstract art. That was my first creative thing before guitar or comedy.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

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.

Working with J Balvin has undoubtedly been an unparalleled experience.

Human beings need stories, and we’re looking for them in all kinds of places; whether it’s television, whether it’s comic books or movies, radio plays, whatever form, people are hungry for stories.

If it weren’t for painting, I wouldn’t live; I couldn’t bear the extra strain of things.

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

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 never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies. I knew that was yearning like one yearns to fly.

I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.

I subscribe to the myth that an artist’s creativity comes from torment. Once that’s fixed, what do you draw on?

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

Later on they send me to Hollywood. To make movies. It was all new to me. I was only 21 years old.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

I like having my hands in the clay. I like the movie-making process.

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

I’ve been asking myself: ‚Why put together these things – CDs, albums?‘ The answer I came up with is, well, sometimes it’s artistically viable. It’s not just a random collection of songs. Sometimes the songs have a common thread, even if it’s not obvious or even conscious on the artists‘ part.

I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

I have a love interest in every one of my films: a gun.

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

It is a joy to be an artist, but it doesn’t mean very much unless that work is somehow useful in some way and contributes to others.

I’m not a very creative person, you know? I’m not really an art person. I’m not a great reader or writer or artist or musician.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

I like Cardi B!

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