Masked Artist Quotes

What I wear on and off stage is my mask. You see, a mask doesn't hide you, it exposes you. ~ Nuno Roque

As [William] Valentiner noted in his uncompleted memoirs Remembering Artists, [Diego] Rivera's [Detroit Industry] murals rooted the Detroit Institute of Arts to the many-faceted jewel of its central court because of the harmonious, fertile relationship between "the industrialist" and "the artist." Rivera remarked to Valentiner how especially struck he was that "Edsel had none of the characteristics of the exploiting capitalist, that he had the simplicity and directness of a workman in his won factories and was like one of the best of them." Their relationship was like the murals themselves, a superb expression of pluralism, toleration, and empathy for the other, and of a cosmopolitan sense of all the Americas, not just of the United States of America or Detroit alone. ~ John Dean

My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it. ~ Jean-Michel Basquiat

I'm intrigued on how music is made, that's how I started getting into it. Of course I've been in the booth before, just joking around to see how it is, and I'll make a couple of beats here or there and help my artists out. But other that, I'll stick to listening. ~ Kevin Durant

I become an actor, a quick-change artist, as if I can trap the Prince of Truth in the act of switching a style. ~ Norman Mailer

Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last. ~ Oscar Wilde

I always found the concept of a tortured artist distasteful. ~ Jeff Tweedy

Risk is what separates the artist from the artisan. ~ T Bone Burnett

It would be a terrible world if everyone was an artist. Nothing would get done! ~ Paul Auster

I feel like 'Next To Me' is a great introduction because it's a simple song that has a simple message for me. I wanted to introduce something that lyrically I'm proud of and introduces me both as an artist and as a writer. ~ Emeli Sande

I was very camera shy. People like hot girls, so I put my music to hot girls and it just became a trend. The whole 'enigmatic artist' thing, I just ran with it. No one could find pictures of me. ~ The Weeknd

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you're doing. If you're not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it. ~ Aretha Franklin

Unlike other reformers, Luther rarely claimed divine inspiration for his ideas. It is interesting too that he uses the word Kunst - art - for it suggests that the insight, like the skill of a craftsman or artist, opened up a whole new ability to accomplish things in a different way. ~ Lyndal Roper

No one can say if you are that person who, given good paint, good brushes, and a fine canvas, can produce something better than the factory man. That is, and has always been, beyond the realm of science. You do have the attitude of the dreamer about you. For that reason, I haven't the heart to argue anymore about this - it is a hopeless talk. And for a simple factory man like me, an effort must be abandoned once its hopelessness is exposed. Only the artist perseveres in such circumstances. ~ David Wroblewski

The gift of imagination is by no means an exclusive property of the artist; it is a gift we all share; to some degree or other all of us are endowed with the powers of fantasy, the dullest of dullards among us has the gift of dreams at night - visions and yearnings and hopes. Everyone can also think; it is the quality thought that makes the difference - not just the quality of logical thinking, but of imaginative thinking. And our greatest thinkers, those who have radically changed our world, have always arrived at their truths by dreaming them; they are first fantasized, and only then subjected to proof. ~ Leonard Bernstein

The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakable evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt. ~ C.S. Lewis

Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into the artist's head and into his problems and solutions. Or we can go there with another writer. ~ William Zinsser

A lot of people are promoting records that are just throw-it-agains t-the-wall-see- if-it-sticks meaningless bullshit. Everybody has the responsibility to do the right thing and promote artists that mean something. ~ Dave Grohl

I like the idea of having many different ways to express myself. There is a part of me as an artist and a creator who would like to express myself in many different ways. But then at the same time I know I have limited hours in the day, and I can only do so much successfully. ~ Donna Karan

I'm an artist by trade and an author by necessity. ~ Kadir Nelson

I see a curator as a catalyst, generator and motivator - a sparring partner, accompanying the artist while they build a show, and a bridge builder, creating a bridge to the public. ~ Hans Ulrich Obrist

A great artist can change society because of the entertaining and mesmerizing quality of his or her art. ~ Jeffrey Lewis

How did she get here, I mean how did she really get here, what were the choices, what's a past–she takes a long drink–what is psychological development? Is it as fucking Freudian as it sounds? She sighs the big sigh of twenty-six, wondering if we are all trapped inside identity, genetics, and narrative–some whacked-out Kafka god handwriting our unbearable little life stories. Then she thinks the American-artist thought, the rough-and-tumble kind: how can I use this? ~ Lidia Yuknavitch

The 'American Idol' and 'X Factor' shows, they're great shows. But I think I need to make a show like that, directed straight to the hood, to the artists that don't get the attention, that don't have the money to make themselves representable. ~ Snoop Dogg

You think, 'You hired me because I'm a creative artist with a vision. Don't try and knock it out of me.' ~ Sam Taylor-Johnson

No writer or teacher or artist can escape the responsibility of influencing others whether he intends to or not, whether he is conscious of it or not. ~ Arthur Koestler

In Paris, our lives are one masked ball. ~ Gaston Leroux

Artists thrive off each other, and when you see other people doing cool stuff, it inspires you to do cool stuff. ~ Courtney Barnett

I'm an artist. And I'm happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it. ~ Jimmy Cliff

I became a degenerate artist. My parents were shaped by their own experiences, and artists weren't so useful in the death camps. ~ Art Spiegelman

Artists can no more speak about their work, than plants can speak about horticulture. ~ Jean Cocteau

It's not in the interest of the artist to think of his market. ~ Chris Van Allsburg

No wonder the film industry started in the desert in California where, like all desert dwellers, they dream their buildings, rather than design them. ~ Arthur Erickson

I'm ridiculously fortunate to get a chance to experience the sitcom world. The schedule is extremely easy, and you get fed as an artist because you're not only working on a project, but you get to work with cameras, and you get the audience there. ~ Andrea Anders

Like I've been sketched by an amateur artist: if you don't look too closely, it's all right, but start focusing and all the smudges and mistakes become really obvious. ~ Lauren Oliver