If I was just a fan of music, I would think that I was the number one artist in the world.
Kanye WestThere ought to be an artistic depot where the artist need only hand in his artwork in order to receive what he asks for. As things are, one must be half a business man, and how can one understand – good heavens! – that’s what I really call troublesome.
Ludwig van BeethovenLuxury is the wolf at the door and its fangs are the vanities and conceits germinated by success. When an artist learns this, he knows where the danger is.
Tennessee WilliamsNothing, 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.
Oscar WildeThe 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.
AristotleI’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.
David ByrneYou start to become successful, and everybody starts to drive your money train to the bank, and they’re not thinking anymore about what you want as an artist or if any of that even matters to you. It genuinely upsets people in my life that I don’t care about money, and that’s not my problem.
Lady GagaAs 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.
Nipsey HussleEvery artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.
Albert CamusEvery portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Oscar WildeMy days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continually of the ‚light‘ and never mentioned the other, then as an artist, I would be a liar.
Charles BukowskiI think it’s important as an artist to never forget where you’re from.
Bad BunnyI performed in a bowling alley before while people were still bowling. Cut the check, and I will perform anywhere.
Kevin HartThe 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.
J. ColeFiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist.
Hunter S. ThompsonI love Wiz Khalifa.
Taylor SwiftI decided to sell my drawings. However, I didn’t want people to buy my drawings because the professor of physics isn’t supposed to be able to draw – isn’t that wonderful – so I made up a false name.
Richard P. FeynmanEvery artist was first an amateur.
Ralph Waldo EmersonThe job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
Francis BaconI 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.
Oscar WildeI am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Albert EinsteinI’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.
Frank OceanI don’t care if people think I am an overactor, as long as they enjoy what I do. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter.
Jim CarreyI’m rather kind of old school, thinking that when an artist does his work, it’s no longer his… I just see what people make of it.
David BowieTrue art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
Albert EinsteinI was going to go to a four-year college and be an anthropologist or to an art school and be an illustrator when a friend convinced me to learn photography at the University of Southern California. Little did I know it was a school that taught you how to make movies! It had never occurred to me that I’d ever have any interest in filmmaking.
George LucasI had wanted a tape recorder since I was tiny. I thought it was a magic thing. I never got one until just before I went to art school.
Brian EnoMy role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
John LennonI first met Bev Shea while in Chicago when he was on Moody Radio. As a young man starting my ministry, I asked Bev if he would join me. He said yes, and for over 60 years we had the privilege of ministering together across the country and around the world.
Billy GrahamAn artist or a creative person of any kind goes about their work because it’s their path, it’s what excites them, it’s what aligns their soul with who they truly are, who they showed up to be.
Wayne DyerPeople still think of me as a cartoonist, but the only thing I lift a pen or pencil for these days is to sign a contract, a check, or an autograph.
Walt DisneyMy mother encouraged me to be artistic. It was written in a contract at an early age that I would be an artist.
Kurt CobainThe artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.
Albert CamusVan 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.
Wayne DyerI 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.
Billie EilishGreat art is the contempt of a great man for small art.
F. Scott FitzgeraldThere is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright.
Dylan ThomasA record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.
Lady GagaI think of myself more as a sportsman than I do an artist.
Jerry SeinfeldIt’s wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago.
Dan QuayleI do love being in my studio. Especially at night.
Brian EnoThe primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.
James BaldwinWhen I was nine years old, living on the south side of Chicago, my father was a minister and my mother used to scrub floors. I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‚One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.‘ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.
Mr. TI didn’t die young. So I am very lucky. There are other artists and people that didn’t survive certain things… people can imagine that I did the most dangerous, and I did the worst… for many reasons, I shouldn’t be here.
Angelina JolieWell, in order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times.
Lady GagaIt’s a curse. I ask God to take this away from me all the time. I do not like being an artist.
Kevin GatesIf you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.
Lana Del ReyA solution built by an artist serves the artist more than the solution the capitalist comes up with.
Nipsey HussleI 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.
Kanye WestGlorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.
Golda MeirAn artist needn’t be a clergyman or a churchwarden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.
Vincent Van GoghArt is making something out of nothing and selling it.
Frank ZappaThe highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
Abraham LincolnTechnique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it.
Oscar WildeIn order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.
Lady GagaI think I first realized I wanted to be in country music and be an artist when I was 10. And I started dragging my parents to festivals, and fairs, and karaoke contests, and I did that for about a year before I came to Nashville for the first time. I was 11 and I had this demo CD of me singing Dixie Chicks and Leanne Rimes songs.
Taylor SwiftI think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it’s to be true and not cover up the cracks.
BonoAn artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.
Friedrich NietzscheThe man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.
Gilbert K. ChestertonDon’t you love it that Prince doesn’t use Twitter? Don’t you think he’s somewhere on a unicorn?
Bruno Mars