True Artist Quotes

A true artist would see his family starve, rather than work at anything other than his art. ~ Anonymous

A true artist should have no secrets. On the stage, you must be able to transmit every emotion to the spectator. ~ Anna Pavlova

Every true artist is the salvation of every other. Only artists produce for each other a world that is fit to live in. ~ D.H. Lawrence

There is indeed a poetical attitude to be adopted towards all things, but all things are not fit subjects for poetry. Into the secure and sacred house of Beauty the true artist will admit nothing that is harsh or disturbing, nothing that gives pain, nothing that is debatable, nothing about which men argue. He can steep himself, if he wishes, in the discussion of all the social problems of his day, poor-laws and local taxation, free trade and bimetallic currency, and the like; but when he writes on these subjects it will be, as Milton nobly expressed it, with his left hand, in prose and not in verse, in a pamphlet and not in a lyric. This exquisite spirit of artistic choice was not in Byron: Wordsworth had it not. In the work of both these men there is much that we have to reject, much that does not give us that sense of calm and perfect repose which should be the effect of all fine, imaginative work. But in Keats it seemed to have been incarnate, and in his lovely ODE ON A GRECIAN URN it found its most secure and faultless expression; in the pageant of the EARTHLY PARADISE and the knights and ladies of Burne-Jones it is the one dominant note. It is to no avail that the Muse of Poetry be called, even by such a clarion note as Whitman's, to migrate from Greece and Ionia and to placard REMOVED and TO LET on the rocks of the snowy Parnassus. Calliope's call is not yet closed, nor are the epics of Asia ended; the Sphinx is not yet silent, nor the fountain of Castaly dry. For art i ~ Oscar Wilde

A true artist could and should create till the day they die. You don't ever fail as an artist until you quit being an artist. ~ Christian Keiber

No true artist is possible without sorrow and suffering and renunciation. ~ Jessie Fothergill

Now there is fame! Of all - hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public - fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation of God by the artist. It is sad. It is true. ~ Pablo Picasso

There is nothing more lonely than a true artist. ~ Tom Spanbauer

Michael Jackson was extraordinary, When we worked together on 'Bad,' I was in awe of his absolute mastery of movement on the one hand, and of the music on the other. Every step he took was absolutely precise and fluid at the same time. It was like watching quicksilver in motion. He was wonderful to work with, an absolute professional at all times, and it really goes without saying ... a true artist. It will be a while before I can get used to the idea that he's no longer with us. ~ Martin Scorsese

To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write [ ... ] so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write [ ... ] so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on.
If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say it in a way that reflects the truth that, though we see the evil, we choose to continue among the living.
The true artist [ ... ] gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful
~ John Gardner

A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist. ~ Constantin Stanislavski

I am not worthy to be on a Mariah Carey record. She's a true artist, so I just step back and watch the genius occur. ~ Nick Cannon

The true artist can only labor con amore. ~ Victor Hugo

In my experience, what every true artist wants, really wants, is to be paid. ~ Terry Pratchett

With the true artist, the social formula that he recommends is a matter of secondary importance; the source of his art, its animating spirit, is decisive. ~ Rosa Luxemburg

All great stars are competitive. That's a sign of a true artist - if you don't have the fire of competition deep down inside, you're never going to achieve anything. You have to want to be king of the heap. ~ Camille Paglia

I always liked instrumental music, and I think there's a vehicle out there for it. I think a true artist not only records, but you have to perform and you have to have some kind of consistent output. You can't just put out an album every ten years and never play - that's not an artist, that's something else. But I find there's always been a vehicle for what I've done, because I get out there and play all the time. I say 12 hundred shows on my website just in case, because we can't verify it, but it's more like 15 hundred! ~ Michelangelo

If I was just to shut up, I wouldn't be a true artist. ~ ASAP Ferg

Do what only a true artist can do ... pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation ~ Vladimir Nabokov

For the true artist, there is no trivial thing. ~ Marty Rubin

A true artist is an ugly man. ~ Osamu Dazai

The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths. ~ Bruce Nauman

In general: the true artist is always true to his art; the impostor is self-conscious, demonstrating his idea, projecting his theory, his ego, and e.g. the figures of the painter are not borrowed ideas who demonstrate themselves talking, dying, dreaming - they dot it. They are not of themselves and they LIVE! -And the flowers are not showing us how pretty they are, or how weird. They are what they are - Etc.! No invention for the sake of invention! Invention must serve the purpose of art. ~ Vivienne Westwood

The true artist stands midway between what he imagines and what he does. He is the one who is 'capable of.' he could be what he describes, experience what he writes. The mere act would limit him; he would be the one who has acted. ~ Albert Camus

For a true artist, difficulties become opportunities and clouds become solid present. ~ Alejandro Jodorowsky

How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection. An artist is emotional, they think, and uses only his intuition; he sees all at once and has no need of reason. A scientist is cold, they think, and uses only his reason; he argues carefully step by step, and needs no imagination. That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. ~ Isaac Asimov

Authors of so-called 'literary' fiction insist that action, like plot, is vulgar and unworthy of a true artist. Don't pay any attention to misguided advice of that sort. If you do, you will very likely starve trying to live on your writing income. Besides, the only writers who survive the ages are those who understand the need for action in a novel. ~ Dean Koontz

A true artist, in my mind, is willing to fail sometimes, because if you're not brave enough to say yes and follow your gut, it's never going to be good. ~ Alexander Skarsgard

No one can make the album they made 10 years ago with a straight face. There are two reasons: one is you change as a person. To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way. And the second thing is these are different times. ~ Brad Paisley

The true artist is known by what he annexes, and he annexes everything. ~ Oscar Wilde

It has always been my belief that the true artist, like the true scientist, is a researcher using materials and techniques to dig into the truth and meaning of the world in which he himself lives; and what he creates, or better perhaps, brings back, are the objective results of his explorations. The measure of his talent
of his genius, if you will
is the richness he finds in such a life's voyage of discovery and the effectiveness with which he is able to embody it through his chosen medium. ~ Paul Strand

To be a true artist, I have to be true to who I am now and write that way. ~ Brad Paisley

I think Damien Hirst is hilarious. And I think he's a true artist. He's not hilarious first; I think he is a real artist, and I also think he's got an amazing sense of humor. ~ Jemima Kirke

A true artist is someone who gives birth to a new reality. ~ Plato

A true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art. ~ George Bernard Shaw

What makes an amazing artist? It's not his ability to impress but his skill in touching people's lives through his craft. When he does even a simple piece of work with not much adornment (fanciful words, colors) and it moves the hearts of his audience, it is considered to be a masterpiece! A true artist lets people enter a different kind of sanctuary out of the conventional. What makes his work standout is its uniqueness -if it has a HEART. ~ Elizabeth E. Castillo

...So the next time you hear that voice telling you, 'you cannot paint', just see that you pick up that brush and paint alright! Creativity is all about making mistakes, and a true artist knows which blotches to keep and which ones to veil in layers of paint. ~ Vibhuti Bhandarkar

A true artist willingly removes their heart, allows constructive criticism to stomp it, then puts it back
bruised and aching
to continue improving due to the all-consuming obsessive love for their art. ~ H.G. Mewis

I feel people are seeing me as a true artist rather than a singer, or an entertainer, or a girl who just makes songs. ~ Alessia Cara

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun. ~ Ludwig Van Beethoven

CALIGULA: I'm the only true artist Rome has known - the only one, believe me - to match his inspiration with his deeds.
CHEREA: That's only a matter of having the power.
CALIGULA: Quite true. Other artists create to compensate for their lack of power. I don't need to make a work of art; I live it. ~ Albert Camus

Hypnotically haunting sounds from a true artist that dares to dream. ~ John Lindberg

The true artist doesn't substitute immorality for morality. On the contrary, he always substitutes a finer morality for a grosser one. ~ D.H. Lawrence

Every mother should be a true artist, who knows how to weave into her child's life images of grace and beauty, the true poet capable of writing on the soul of childhood the harmony of love and truth, and teaching it how to produce the grandest of all poems - the poetry of a true and noble life. ~ Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

If heaven gives me ten more years, or an extension of even five years, I shall surely become a true artist. ~ Hokusai

Any true musician, true artist, knows that when they're in that point of total artistic creation, whether on stage or in the studio or writing or whatever, that's the closest moment [to creation]. And that's what keeps all these people addicted to getting back to that moment again. ~ Richard Ashcroft

To cherish perfection is to commit creative suicide, and every true artist knows that a masterpiece is an accident that should be burned. ~ Barry Hughart

Although I am capable, through long dabbling in blue magic, of imitating any prose in the world (but singularly enough not verse - I am a miserable rhymester), I do not consider myself a true artist, save in one matter: I can do what only a true artist can do - pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation, wean myself abruptly from the habit of things, see the web of the world, and the warp and the weft of that web. ~ Vladimir Nabokov

To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

I know a lot of people who are not here anymore, and I wonder why I'm still here ... Not a day goes by that I don't think about Sam Cooke. His presence is so strong and so convincing to me, a true artist, a true talent, who never talked down to people. ~ Bobby Womack

A true artist is never satisfied with settling, so you will never see them stay the same for very long. They are like chameleons... ever-changing, ever-scheming, ever-chasing that glimpse of divine inspiration that creates them anew. ~ Sarah Loven

Every mother should endeavor to be a true artist. ~ Frances Harper

A plagiarist steals from one person. A true artist steals from everybody. ~ Pablo Picasso

Prince.. a true artist in every sense of the world.Gone way too soon. ~ Quincy Jones

A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public are to him non-existent ~ Oscar Wilde

It does not matter whether you get the appreciation that you deserve. It does not matter whether your art gets the appreciation that it deserves. A true artist does not ever stop creating art! ~ Avijeet Das

Then now, Thrasymachus, there is no longer any doubt that neither arts nor governments provide for their own interests; but, as we were before saying, they rule and provide for the interests of their subjects who are the weaker and not the stronger - to their good they attend and not to the good of the superior. And this is the reason, my dear Thrasymachus, why, as I was just now saying, no one is willing to govern; because no one likes to take in hand the reformation of evils which are not his concern without remuneration. For, in the execution of his work, and in giving his orders to another, the true artist does not regard his own interest, but always that of his subjects; and therefore in order that rulers may be willing to rule, they must be paid in one of three modes of payment, money, or honour, or a penalty for refusing. What ~ Plato

There is a desperate tendency to try to legislate artists, to try to lay down rules for their obligations to society. Just leave artists alone. If you are a true artist, you will have a very finely tuned moral mechanism. ~ Athol Fugard

I think if you're a creative person, then you're always kinda looking to move things along - 'Where else can I go? Where can I take this?' From painters to photographers - anything creative in the arts - if you're a true artist, I think you'll always look to do something else. 'Where else can I go with it?' Do you know what I mean? ~ Paul Weller

It's the difference between a true artist and everybody else." Claire sighed. "They can remake the world. ~ Janet Fitch

The sad work of a true artist speaks to us in that tone of people who have suffered, who force anyone who has suffered to drop everything and listen. ~ Marcel Proust

However contradictory the coroner's report - whether he pronounces Consumption or Loneliness or Suicide to be the cause of death - isn't it plain how the true artist-seer actually dies? I say that the true artist-seer, the heavenly fool who can and does produce beauty, is mainly dazzled to death by his own scruples, the blinding shapes and colors of his own sacred human conscience. ~ J.D. Salinger

I swore I'd be the most famous musician in the world." "Dat's dangerous, dat kinda swear," said Cliff. "Oook." "Isn't it what every artist wants?" said Buddy. "In my experience," said Glod, "what every true artist wants, really wants, is to be paid." "And famous," said Buddy. "Famous I don't know about," said Glod. "It's hard to be famous and alive. I just want to play music every day and hear someone say, 'Thanks, that was great, here is some money, same time tomorrow, okay? ~ Terry Pratchett

Watch a French housewife as she makes her way slowly along the loaded stalls ... searching for the peak of ripeness and flavor ... What you are seeing is a true artist at work, patiently assembling all the materials of her craft, just as the painter squeezes oil colors onto his palette ready to create a masterpiece. ~ Keith Floyd

Creativity is not enough ... the skill of the true artist is to show the real in the light of the ideal and so transfigure it. ~ Roger Scruton

A true artist is always out of his time. ~ Alejandro Jodorowsky

A true artist sees the rays of the sun, while others are still groping in the dark. ~ Kristian Goldmund Aumann

Beauty is itself so unattainable that it escapes altogether; and the true artist, like the true Mystic, can never rest ~ Aleister Crowley

The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself. ~ Oscar Wilde

Art was not created as a way to riches. Strive to become a true artist; all else will take care of itself. ~ Robert Schumann

For the artist, drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase; it is quite literally true. ~ John Berger

In movies, books & even music, to me, the true artist is the writer. Writers have to begin the creative process by making nothing into something before it can ever manifest into anything. ~ Chris Mentillo

I learned how difficult it is to be an artist. There are always compromises. The record company wants you to do this, your fans want you to do this, your family, you can't concentrate on your work. It's a hard thing to be an artist and not give up. That's why I have so much respect for people like Dylan and Neil Young and Tom Waits, because they keep at it. I have a new respect for a true artist. ~ Robert Hilburn

I love Darius Rucker. He's a true artist, a great songwriter who can play his instrument, sing and write about his life. ~ Randy Houser

Every true artist must, in his own way, be a magician, a charlatan. ~ Orson Welles

A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others. ~ Salvador Dali

The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art. To women he is half vivisector, half vampire. He gets into intimate relations with them to study them, to strip the mask of convention from them, to surprise their inmost secrets, knowing that they have the power to rouse his deepest creative energies, to rescue him from his cold reason, to make him see visions and dream dreams, to inspire him, as he calls it. He persuades women that they may do this for their own purpose whilst he really means them to do it for his. He steals the mother's milk and blackens it to make printer's ink to scoff at her and glorify ideal women with. He pretends to spare her the pangs of child-bearing so that he may have for himself the tenderness and fostering that belong of right to her children. Since marriage began, the great artist has been known as a bad husband. But he is worse: he is a child-robber, a blood-sucker, a hypocrite, and a cheat. Perish the race and wither a thousand women if only the sacrifice of them enable him to act Hamlet better, to paint a finer picture, to write a deeper poem, a greater play, a profounder philosophy! For mark you, Tavy, the artist's work is to shew us ourselves as we really are. Our minds are nothing but this knowledge of ourselves; and he who adds a jot to such knowledge creates new mind as surely as any woman creates new men. In the rage of that creatio ~ George Bernard Shaw

A true artist creates art because they have a passion and desire to do so. ~ Anne-Rae Vasquez

Transforming leadership, [is defined as] leadership that builds on man's need for meaning, leadership that creates institutional purpose ... he is the value-shaper, the exemplar, the maker of meanings ... he is the true artist, the true pathfinder. ~ Tom Peters

The True Artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be a true artist you have to play the way you feel - not the way others think you should feel. ~ Don Ellis

A true artist never portrays to please, but to show. ~ Christian Morgenstern

Maiha
"Allow me to introduce you to the Children of Mars. On lead guitar and eight barreled Calliope Gatlin, Colonel Fujiyama. On bass and manning the double-barreled thirty millimeter PPC's we have Major Howard. Singing backup and key boards we have Fight Captain Benz with a lovely ten millimeter rapid fire gauss rifle. Her lovely partner Captain Martin on drums with her ten millimeter Hell-bore pulse laser rifle. And singing lead and front man, a true artist with a bang from the Castile sniper rifle, our Big Daddy, Papa of Death and Destruction, the one, the only, the man, the myth, the legend, Lord James Nakatoma- Bailey." When I finished Alice was giggling out loud. ~ Jessie Wolf

According to population expert Dr. Paul Ehrlich, we should currently be experiencing a dystopian dreamscape where "survivors envy the dead," which seems true only when I look at Twitter. Yet ~ Chuck Klosterman

For as grateful as she feels for the company of the Nandis and Dr. Gupta, these acquaintances are only substitutes for the people who really ought to be surrounding them. Without a single grandparent or parent or uncle or aunt at her side, the baby's birth, like most everything else in America, feels somehow haphazard, only half true. ~ Jhumpa Lahiri

Each man, if he attempts to join himself to others, is on all sides cramped and diminished of his proportion; and the stricter theunion, the smaller and the more pitiful he is. But leave him alone, to recognize in every hour and place the secret soul, he will go up and down doing the works of a true member, and, to the astonishment of all, the work will be done with concert, though no man spoke. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

All change brings bad things and good things to replace the bad and good things that were before. It is natural to look back and say it was better before - but that does not make it true. Different is not worse. It is just different. ~ Patricia Briggs

As it turned out, the first thing I knew about war was also the truest, and maybe it's as true for nations as for individuals: You can survive and not survive, both at the same time. ~ Megan K. Stack

I think the best thing an artist can do is not hang out with other artists. I really dislike hanging out with musicians, for the most part, except for a few select friends, because I don't like to talk about music all the time. ~ Justin Townes Earle

But the ruinous thing about growing up is that we stop creating mysteries where none exist, and worse, we usually try to deconstruct and deny the genuine mysteries that remain. We argue against God, against true romance, against loyalty and self-sacrifice. ~ Leif Enger

All men fear death. It's a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear death because we feel that we haven't loved well enough or loved at all, which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart with a great woman the world fades away. You two are the only ones in the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never conquered before, you have conquered a great woman's heart, the most vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task for it takes insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are making love with a woman of true greatness you will feel immortal.
I believe that love that is true and real creates a respite from death. All cowardice comes from not loving or not loving well, which is the same thing. And when the man who is brave and true looks death squarely in the face like some rhino hunters I know or Belmonte, who is truly brave, it is because they love with sufficient passion to push death out of their minds. Until it returns, as it does to all men. And then you must make really good love again. Think about it. ~ Woody Allen

The Dream of a Queer Fellow I write the words again and they appear doubly pregnant with meaning. It is a true and terrible phrase : true, because we are all queer fellows dreaming ; and we are queer just because we dream ; terrible, because of the vastness of the unknown which it carries within itself, because it sets loose the tremendous and awful question : What if we are only queer fellows dreaming ? What if behind the veil the truth is leering and jeering at our queerness and our dreams?What if the queer fellow of the story were right, before he dreamed ?What if it were really all the same?

What if it were all the same not once but a million times, life after life, world after world, the same pain, the same doubt, the same dreams? The queer fellow went but one day's journey along the eternal recurrence which threatens human minds and human destinies. When he returned he was queer. There was another man went the same journey. Friedrich Nietzsche dreamed this very dream in the mountains of the Engadine. When he returned he too was queer. ~ John Middleton Murry

The emotions in all true anxiety dreams are next to unbearable. ~ Dick Cavett

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and was a very competitive (and stressed out!) gymnast before getting into entertainment, but it was never the actual gymnastics that was my true love. I loved the performing aspect of it all. ~ Rachele Brooke Smith

True love is the most rare thing in the world. Most people just pretend to love. ~ Debasish Mridha

Lady Ligeia," he began again, "is a woman in the literature who returns from the dead, taking over another woman's body to be with her true love."
"Oh, yes. Lovely" Isobel blanched. "I guess the other chick didn't mind at all? ~ Kelly Creagh

DREAMS are not only which you experienced in that sweet night behind the darkness,Dreams are your own,admire,wishing for your future sun rays.... :) :) ~ Lav Bamaniya

Why not treat yourself to a body to body massage in London Today? Jenna is your palatial guide in the soft and enticing world of sensual companionship. Be comfortable, she offers you sensuality; thoughtful, intimate conversation and her magic touch will ride a waves of intense pleasure in you. She loves to laugh and take time to know you and your body with true passion and perfection. ~ Crispinrexweb

On the simplest level, telecommuting makes it harder for people to have the kinds of informal interactions that are crucial to the way knowledge moves through an organization. The role that hallway chat plays in driving new ideas has become a cliche of business writing, but that doesn't make it less true. ~ James Surowiecki

What's in a fairytale? Shadows and light, good and true, vile and ugly, frightening and comforting, heroes and heroines who know that belief in their own magic spurs them on. It is their own faith and courage as they reach for an unwritten Destiny that grants their deepest hopes and makes dreams, as if by magic, come true. ~ Suzy Davies