Artistic Life Quotes

My whole artistic life has always been about change, change, change, move on, move on. It's the only thing I find interesting. ~ Paul Simon

Chicago still remains a Mecca of the Midwest - people from both coasts are kind of amazed how good life is in Chicago, and what a good culture we've got. You can have a pretty wonderful artistic life and never leave Chicago. ~ Harold Ramis

There are all sorts of families," Tom's grandmother had remarked, and over the following few weeks Tom became part of the Casson family, as Micheal and Sarah and Derek-from-the-camp had done before him.
He immediately discovered that being a member of the family was very different from being a welcome friend. If you were a Casson family member, for example, and Eve drifted in from the shed asking, "Food? Any ideas? Or shall we not bother?" then you either joined in the search of the kitchen cupboards or counted the money in the housekeeping jam jar and calculated how many pizzas you could afford. Also, if you were a family member you took care of Rose, helped with homework (Saffron and Sarah were very strict about homework), unloaded the washing machine, learned to fold up Sarah's wheelchair, hunted for car keys, and kept up the hopeful theory that in the event of a crisis Bill Casson would disengage himself from his artistic life in London and rush home to help. ~ Hilary McKay

During [Erté]'s childhood St. Petersburg was an elegant centre of theatrical and artistic life. At the same time, under its cultivated sophistication, ominous rumbles could be distinguished. The reign of the tough Alexander III ended in 1894 and his more gentle successor Nicholas was to be the last of the Tsars … St. Petersburg was a very French city. The Franco-Russian Pact of 1892 consolidated military and cultural ties, and later brought Russia into the First World war. Two activities that deeply influenced [Erté], fashion and art, were particularly dominated by France. The brilliant couturier Paul Poiret, for whom Erté was later to work in Paris, visited the city to display his creations. Modern art from abroad, principally French, was beginning to be show in Russia in the early years of the century …

In St. Petersburg there were three Imperial theatres―the Maryinsky, devoted to opera and ballet, the Alexandrinsky, with its lovely classical façade, performing Russian and foreign classical drama, and the Michaelovsky with a French repertoire and company …

It is not surprising that an artistic youth in St. Petersburg in the first decade of this century should have seen his future in the theatre. The theatre, especially opera and ballet, attracted the leading young painters of the day, including Mikhail Vrubel, possibly the greatest Russian painter of the pre-modernistic period. The father of modern theatrical design in Russia was Alexandre Benois, an o ~ Charles Spencer

The first part of my name, Khalil Gibran, seems to be paying huge dividends in terms of the artistic life of the poet from whom my name was inspired. ~ Khalil Gibran Muhammad

What I'm after, above all, is a sense of divine inspiration
that touches the very core of my being.

That lives throughout every aspect of my existence,

so all I do and all I see is beauty in the simplicity,
and mystery in the unknown.

To let nothing drag me into the monotony of living,

but to always move to the unique rhythm of each passing day.
To give nothing but all of me- my soul, my heart, my fire. ~ Sarah Loven

The word 'art' interests me very much. If it comes from Sanskrit, as I've heard, it signifies 'making.' Now everyone makes something, and those who make things on a canvas with a frame, they're called artists. Formerly, they were called craftsmen, a term I prefer. We're all craftsmen, in civilian or military or artistic life. ~ Marcel Duchamp

I feel blessed. To live an artistic life, it's a blessing. ~ Elias Koteas

In the fullness of artistic life there is, and remains, and will always come back at times, that homesick longing for the truly ideal life that can never come true. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

I understood where I had come from: from a dreary tangle of sadness and pretense, of longing, absurdity, inferiority and provincial pomposity, sentimental education and anachronistic ideals, repressed traumas, resignation, and helplessness. Helplessness of the acerbic, domestic variety, where small-time liars pretended to be dangerous terrorists and heroic freedom fighters, where unhappy bookbinders invented formulas for universal salvation, where dentists whispered confidentially to all their neighbors about their protracted personal correspondence with Stalin, where piano teachers, kindergarten teachers, and housewives tossed and turned tearfully at night from stifled yearning for an emotion-laden artistic life, where compulsive writers wrote endless disgruntled letters to the editor of Davar, where elderly bakers saw Maimonides and the Baal Shem Tov in their dreams, where nervy, self-righteous trade-union hacks kept an apparatchik's eye on the rest of the local residents, where cashiers at the cinema or the cooperative shop composed poems and pamphlets at night. ~ Amos Oz

The artistic life is a long, lovely suicide. ~ Oscar Wilde

How could anybody think of Bach as 'cold' when these [cello] suites seem to shine with the most glittering kind of poetry," Casals said. "As I got on with the study I discovered a new world of space and beauty ... the feelings I experienced were among the purest and most intense in my artistic life! ~ Pablo Casals

It is fatal to one's artistic life to talk about something this is in process. ~ Denise Levertov

Even this artistic life, which we know is not real life, appears to me to be so alive and so vital that it would be a form ingratitude not to be content with it. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

The first sight of Degas' pictures was the turning point of my artistic life. ~ Mary Cassatt

My whole artistic life has been devoted to battling myself and my ability to externalize my deepest emotions. As I have gotten older, the work has become more direct, perhaps reflecting the fact that for the first time in my life I feel really free. I have been fascinated with wings all my life. I have had an obsession with transcendence, the need to push forward and metaphorically fly. ~ Joyce Tenneson

An artistic life is closely associated with a spiritual life as both represent an attempt to withdraw into enforced solitude in order to experience a person's innermost self and to imbue the personal spirit with will and energy, virtue and purity. Both an artist and a spiritual seeker must possess an appreciation for beauty, the courage to confront personal demons, intellectual integrity to express truth, the self-discipline to labor endlessly, and the capacity to endure hardships that might break or destroy other people. Through protracted self-examination of and extensive contemplation of the gifts of nature an artistic and spiritual person overcomes their sense of desperation and feelings of isolation and aloneness, realizes oneness with the universe, becomes enlightened and free, lives humbly in a state of grace, and faces the future with curiosity and optimism. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

But an artist, he realized. Or rather so-called artist. Bohemian. That's closer to it. The artistic life without the talent. ~ Philip K. Dick

I don't tend to offer up a critique unless I have a clearly formulated alternative, because there's nothing worse than people on a set or any kind of artistic life who critique something but who don't have anything to offer. ~ Chiwetel Ejiofor

Unlike my father, who blindly churned out one canvas after another, I had real ideas about the artistic life. Seated at my desk, my beret as tight as an acorn's cap, I projected myself into the world represented in the art books I'd borrowed from the public library. Leafing past the paintings, I would admire the photographs of the artists seated in their garrets, dressed in tattered smocks and frowning in the direction of their beefy nude models. To spend your days in the company of naked men – that was the life for me. 'Turn a bit to the left, Jean-Claude. I long to capture the playful quality of your buttocks. ~ David Sedaris

The artistic life is a long and lovely suicide precisely because it involves the negation of self; as Highsmith imagined herself as her characters, so Ripley takes on the personae of others and in doing so metamorphoses himself into a 'living' work of art. A return to the 'real life' after a period of creativity resulted in a fall in spirits, an agony Highsmith felt acutely. She voiced this pain in the novel via Bernard's quotation of an excerpt from Derwatt's notebook: 'There is no depression for the artist except that caused by a return to the self'. ~ Andrew Wilson

Love trumps everything. Love's decision will not always be kind to your artistic life. ~ Vinita Hampton Wright

As a young man, he was already rather pompous and full of himself, concerned with what he would write and with his early (and, later, perennial) hatred of Ireland and the Irish. When he had still written only a few poems, he asked his brother Stanislaus: "Don't you think there is a certain resemblance between the mystery of the Mass and what I am trying to do? I mean that I am trying in my poems to give people some kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of daily life into something that has a permanent artistic life of its own ... for their mental, moral, and spiritual uplift." When he was older his comparisons may have been less eucharistic and more modest, but he was always convinced of the extreme importance of his work, even before it existed. ~ Javier Marias

I've put in as many as 40 weeks a year on stage. It is lonely and restricted, as all artistic life must necessarily be. ~ Lillie Langtry

In the 'west' success is defined in purely material terms. He with the most money wins ... We should question, speak out and work for a better society with a whole different definition of what is deemed a successful artistic life. ~ Mark A. Brennan

That for me was the big turning point in my artistic life, when my wife and I had our kids. The world got infused with morality again. Every person in the world should theoretically be loved as much as I love my daughters. ~ George Saunders

If you have used colour throughout most of your artistic life, try just black and white ... it will take your painting to another dimension where tone and form in all its permutations reign supreme. ~ David Luiz

Don't you think there is a certain resemblance between the mystery of the Mass and what I am trying to do? ... To give people some kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of everyday life into something that has a permanent artistic life of its own. ~ James Joyce

Life! Life! Don't let us go to life for our fulfillment or our experience. It is a thing narrowed by circumstances, incoherent in its utterance, and without that fine correspondence of form and spirit which is the only thing that can satisfy the artistic ~ Oscar Wilde

I think for anyone who follows the 'artistic life,' a certain amount of selfishness and self-involvement is part of the package. You're probably already disregarding a certain material life you could have. ~ David Chase

I can become someone else, not out of pressure and desperation, but merely because a new life sounds fun or interesting or joyful. ~ Chuck Palahniuk

You need to maximize your Gods given potential through the power of your spirit, your inner core, your values and principles on which your life is based ~ Sunday Adelaja

Dream about the better life and not about the skin or the hair color. One person will choose you for who you are! Surround yourself with them though many can be around.
Love yourself and the world will love you back. ~ Jyoti Patel

What is it," Pam Shepard said, "about a cluster of skyscrapers in the distance that makes you feel ... What? ... Romantic? Melancholy? Excited? Excited probably."
"Promise," I said.
"Of what?"
"Of everything," I said. "From a distance they promise everything, whatever you're after. They look clean and permanent against the sky like that. Up close you notice dog litter around the foundations."
"Are you saying it's not real? The look of skyscapers from a distance."
"No. It's real enough, I think. But so is the dog litter and if you spend all your time looking at the spires you're going to step in it."
"Into each life some shit must fall?"
"Ah," I said, "you put it so much more gracefully than I. ~ Robert B. Parker

When you know the impact of little expenses, you will realise that there is nothing little in this world. ~ Manoj Arora

But our intuitive conception of time differs from the ceaseless cosmic stream envisioned by Newton and Kant. To begin with, our experience of the present is not an infinitesimal instant. Instead it embraces some minimum duration, a moving window on life in which we apprehend not just the instantaneous "now" but a bit of the recent past and a bit of the impending future. ~ Steven Pinker

All is well. Everything is working out for my highest good. Out of this situation only good will come. I am safe. It will work miracles in your life. ~ Louise L. Hay

Sometimes there are moments in life that defy human reasoning; unique occurrences that simply cannot properly be resolved with the natural mind. So it's only when one reaches further than themselves, and out into the unseen realm of faith, that life's most miraculous moments can
truly be discerned. For it is in these moments that God is making more known the reality of His existence; and more known to we who believe, the greatness of His power and love. ~ Calvin W. Allison

Hollywood typecast me as the secretary. I could have worked as the quirky secretary for the rest of my life, but I decided not to do that. ~ Felicia Day

You are not a man as ordinary men are. They think they have a right to all beasts; to hunt them and eat them, or to subjugate them and rule their lives. You know you have no such right to mastery. The horse that carries you will do so because he wishes to, as does the wolf that hunts beside you. You have a deeper sense of yourself in the world. You believe you have a right, not to rule it, but to be part of it. Predator or prey; there is no shame to being either one. ~ Robin Hobb

Few things will pay you bigger dividends in life than the time and trouble you take to understand people and build relationships. As ~ John C. Maxwell

See yourself as a long-term work in progress, not a short-term project of preservation. ~ Oli Anderson

A Design For Life"

Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now for a shallow piece of dignity

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came

We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my pretty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came

We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life

We don't talk about love we only want to get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end

A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for... ~ Manic Street Preachers

YOUR TWIN-FLAME IS ON BACK ORDER.
THE HEAVENLY FATHER IS BUILDING YOUR SOULMATE TAILOR MADE FOR YOU SPECIAL ORDER.
WHEN YOUR MATE IS COMPLETE
THE UNIVERSE WILL SHIP THEM OUT SPECIAL DELIVERY, WITH A BOW.
WHEN YOU MEET THEM YOU'LL KNOW!

YOU DESERVE THE BEST.
SINCERELY,
#FRIENDINYOURPOCKET ~ Qwana M. BabyGirl Reynolds-Frasier

I've done a lot of geeky things in my life, but I think the geekiest of all was my first effort to build props and cosplay, when I was about twelve years-old. ~ Wil Wheaton

Write down everything you want to do with your life and then spend the next 25 years doing them. ~ Robert De Niro

You may think you don't want to throw your life away for mere fleeting euphoria. But, once you get a taste, it doesn't feel so mere.
From then on the planet becomes a waiting room. The rest of your life devolves to no more than the time between highs. ~ Jerry Stahl

Keep discovery new paths. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

I asked myself whether, in bygone days, men had longed for bygone days as I, this summer morning, longed for certain ways of life that man had lost forever. ~ Alejo Carpentier

I am thankful when I am hungry because then I know that when I eat, the food will taste better. Life has taught me that my true contentment rests in hope, and the pleasure itself is secondary. It is self-awareness, not happiness, that maintains peace. ~ Criss Jami

I just decided that I would not put my professional life on hold to raise children. I know that sounds selfish to a lot of people and I don't know if what I'm doing is the right thing. But that's the way I'm doing it. ~ Emmanuelle Beart

Contemplation, as it has come to be understood in the Christian tradition, is a return to the paradisiacal state of union with God, which brings to fulfillment the redemptive act of Christ. It is the beginning of a level of consciousness, beyond ordinary consciousness, in which one begins to experience the reality of new life, of risen life. It is an experience of union with God and a realization of our oneness with our brothers and sisters. ~ William Shannon

Breathing slowly and rubbing his palm against his chest as if to soothe his heart. ~ Hanya Yanagihara

And all I could see would be stars. And stars are the places where the molecules that life is made of were constructed billions of years ago. For example, all the iron in your blood which stops you from being anemic was made in a star. ~ Mark Haddon

I'm not hungry!' A human voice, but with a sulky whine in it that suggested that its owner had been given too many sweets when he was young and not enough shoutings-at. It was the kind of voice that's used to having its life with the crusts cut off. ~ Terry Pratchett

It is not what I do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through me. God does not want worldly successes, He wants me. He wants my heart in submission to Him. Life is not just a few years to spend on self indulgence and career advancement. It is a privilege, a responsibility, a stewardship to be lived according to a much higher calling, God's calling. This alone gives true meaning to life. ~ Elizabeth Dole

I don't feel I have to write deep and meaningful songs; they can be light and meaningless. It has to do with the place I am in my life, a really good place. ~ Neil Diamond

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape. ~ Khalil Gibran

You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go. ~ Ian McEwan

It is worth it to leave behing my minor life for grander maybes
-Miles Pudge ~ John Green

Your life will follow your expectations. What you expect is what you will get. If you dwell on positive thoughts, you will move in that direction; if you continually think negative thoughts, you will live a negative life. ~ Joel Osteen

In life you have to avoid three geometric figures - vicious circles, love triangles and square minds ~ Mario Benedetti

Tell me something, Mari - do you believe in reincarnation?"
Mari shakes her head. "No, I don't think so," she says.
"So you don't think there's a life to come?"
"I haven't thought much about it. But it seems to me there's no reason to believe in a life after this one."
"So once you're dead there's just nothing?"
"Basically."
"Well, I think there has to be something like reincarnation. Or maybe I should say I'm scared to think there isn't. I can't understand nothingness. I can't understand it and I can't imagine it."
"Nothingness means there's absolutely nothing, so maybe there's no need to understand it or imagine it."
"Yeah, but what if nothingness is not like that? What if it's the kind of thing that demands that you understand it or imagine it? I mean, you don't know what it's like to die, Mari. Maybe a person really has to die to understand what it's like."
"Well, yeah…," says Mari.
"I get so scared when I start thinking about this stuff," Korogi says. "I can hardly breathe, and my whole body wants to shrink into a corner. It's so much easier to just believe in reincarnation. You might be reborn as something awful, but at least you can imagine what you'd look like - a horse, say, or a snail. And even if it was something bad, you might be luckier next time. ~ Haruki Murakami

Maybe. We're all equals at the dark gate, no? The sands run for us all. Life is but a flicker shouting into the jaws of eternity. But it seems so damned unfair! ~ Glen Cook

It is not enough for the Jew to rest content with his own spiritual ascent, the elevation of his soul in closeness to G-d, he must strive to draw spirituality down into the world and into every part of it – the world of his work and his social life – until not only do they not distract him from his pursuit of G-d, but they become a full part of it. ~ (R. Menachem M. Schneerson)

And when you learn, over the course of your life, that it's not about pleasing God, it's about learning how to trust God. That's a huge watershed, because trust is a whole different ballgame than appeasement or pleasing. ~ William P. Young