Top 100 Art Speak Quotes
#1. I don't understand art-speak. My pictures are big doodles. I'm amazed what people come up with when they look at them. There's one of a figure with two heads that somebody thought must be a comment on the state of matrimony. None of it is a comment on anything.
Billy Connolly
#2. The greatest works of art speak to us without knowing us.
Alain De Botton
#3. I don't want to think too much about how I'm carving and what I'm carving - you are just carving away the excess clay and there's a piece underneath there. And it's kind of like getting out of the way. Maybe that's what the commonality is: It's getting out of the way so that the art can speak.
Erykah Badu
#4. Artists will sometimes speak of Rome with disparagement or indifference while it is before them; but no artist ewer lived in Rome and then left it, without sighing to return.
George Stillman Hillard
#5. Cling not to one mood,
And deemed not thou art right, all others wrong.
For whoso thinks that wisdom dwells with him,
That he alone can speak or think alright,
Such oracles are empty breath when tried.
The wisest man will let himself be swayed
By other's wisdom and relax in time.
Sophocles
#6. Do not criticize any other martial arts or speak ill of others, as it will surely come back to you. The mountain does not laugh at the river because it is lowly, nor does the river speak ill of the mountain because it can not move.
Koichi Tohei
#7. Truth is the first thing that present-day literature lacks. The writer has drowned himself in lies, he is too accustomed to speak prudently, with a careful look over his shoulder.
Yevgeny Zamyatin
#8. Art has always had as its test in the long term the ability to speak to our innermost selves.
Bill Viola
#9. The great challenge is how to make smart, intelligent art that can speak to everybody.
Vik Muniz
#10. It takes two years on the stage for an actor or an actress to learn how to speak correctly and to manage his voice properly, and it takes about ten years to master the subtle art of being able to hold one's audience.
D.W. Griffith
#11. Dance is the most intimate art, the most unbrainy art, because it is done wholly with the body, which is so limited in its ability to speak anything but the truth.
Joan Acocella
#12. It has been my personal experience that as I allow the painting to speak I become lost, it is delicious and at the same time frightening. The best ones, to me, have a life of their own.
Luther E. Vann
#13. The voice of madness, for instance, is barely a whisper in the babbling history of art because its realities are themselves too maddening to speak of for very long - and those of the Teatro have no voice at all, given their imponderably grotesque nature.
Thomas Ligotti
#14. Art, though, is never the voice of a country; it is an even more precious thing, the voice of the individual, doing its best to speak, not comfort of any sort, but truth. And the art that speaks it most unmistakably, most directly, most variously, most fully, is fiction; in particular, the novel.
Eudora Welty
#15. You know that I immerse myself in music, so to speak - that I think about it all day long - that I like experimenting - studying - reflecting.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
#16. Hip-hop started as this niche moment, and the values of it, the cultures that it carried on its back; language, clothes, the way you wear your clothes, the items that you consume, all came with the music as an art form. And those things helped transform how people buy, shop, speak, engage.
Steve Stoute
#17. Great art speaks a language which every intelligent person can understand. The people who call themselves modernists today speak a different language.
Marshall McLuhan
#18. The secret to those who write is that they come to the art simply because they cannot speak.
Liz Rosenberg
#19. For me science is not different from art, except in the one small, crucial detail that experiments speak their own truths, not ours.
Nina Fedoroff
#20. Art thou like me, child of my darkest heart? And dost thou think my untamed thoughts and speak my vast language?"
"Yea, we are twin brothers, O, Night; for thou revealest space and I reveal my soul.
Kahlil Gibran
#21. Speak against unconscious oppression,
Speak against the tyranny of the unimaginative,
Speak against bonds.
Ezra Pound
#22. Life eternal, this lady of thine hath a sore heart, and we cannot help her. Thou art help, O Mighty Love. Speak to her, and let her know thy will, and give her strength to do it, O Father of Jesus Christ, Amen.
George MacDonald
#23. Wishing to open my mouth, O brethren, and speak on the exalted theme of humility, I am filled with fear, even as a man who understands that he is about to discourse concerning God with the art of his own words. For humility is the raiment of the Godhead.
Isaac Of Nineveh
#24. To make the material speak to man in the name of man, this is the aim and reality of art.
Asger Jorn
#25. So, take what's inside you and make big, bold choices. And for those who can't speak for themselves, use bold voices. And make friends and love well, bring art to this place. And make this world better for the whole human race.
Jamie Lee Curtis
#26. Freedom of speech is, to all Americans, as oxygen is to the human condition. It is a right that has been irreversibly programmed into our hard drive. We are free to speak our minds. An artist's right to express him or herself as best suits their art, is the artist's prerogative and it is guaranteed.
John C. McGinley
#27. In our country, the problem we have in our public school system across the country is that music and arts are on the bottom of the pole, if it's there at all. So the kids aren't exposed to music. I must speak to the music they hear at home too.
Ramsey Lewis
#28. I want that glib and oily art to speak and purpose not, since what I well intend, I'll do't before I speak.
William Shakespeare
#29. Your work speaks for you. Your art defines you.
Oprah Winfrey
#30. Who alive can say 'Thou art no Poet - mayst not tell thy dreams'? Since every man whose soul is not a clod Hath visions, and would speak, if he had loved, And been well nurtured in his mother tongue.
John Keats
#31. They speak of "This Dojo" and "That Dojo". They are looking for profit.
Miyamoto Musashi
#32. I have no idea of what it's going to look like when I start a piece. Making art is like having a relationship. You want to bring in some ideas, but if you don't allow it to develop naturally and speak to you as it develops, you end up imposing and projecting upon it.
Nick Bantock
#33. Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home:
Is this a holiday? what! know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou?
William Shakespeare
#34. We should comfort ourselves with the masterpieces of art as with exalted personages-stand quietly before them and wait till they speak to us.
Arthur Schopenhauer
#35. Is being burnt a requisite for the making of art? Personally, I don't think it is. But art is poultice for a burn. It is a privilege to have, somewhere within you, a capacity for making something speak from your own seared experience.
Molly Peacock
#36. I love voice over work. To me, voice over and animation is such an art, because you focus solely on your voice. You do not focus on how to speak, combined with facial expressions, movement, etc. You as the actor need to convey all those things with only your voice.
Atticus Shaffer
#37. When I create works of art, I do it because it is part of me and I must create. But afterward, when the work is done, I hope that it'll speak to people, that it'll open up their hearts or their minds. That cannot happen if the art is buried for safekeeping.
Nalini Singh
#39. Where thou art Obliged to speak, be sure speak the Truth: For Equivocation is half way to Lying, as Lying, the whole way to Hell.
William Penn
#40. Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.
Confucius
#41. Eloquence is an art of saying things in such a way (1) that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure; (2) that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it.
Blaise Pascal
#42. When we speak, in gestures or signs, we fashion a real object in the world; the gesture is seen, the words and the song are heard. The arts are simply a kind of writing, which, in one way or another, fixes words or gestures, and gives body to the invisible.
Emile Chartier
#43. There's the dual challenge of wanting to speak from an authentic place, and then being able to be honest about it. Even in the most mannered art, I think that's what people value, is a voice that comes from a real place.
John Darnielle
#44. Art directors speak in pictures. If you want an art director to understand what you're saying, you need to draw some lines and circles on a piece of paper.
Nevada Scheffler
#45. The artist should preach nothing-not even his own autonomy. His art should speak its own truth, and in so doing it will be in harmony with every other kind of truth- moral, metaphysical, mystical.
Thomas Merton
#46. The arts speak across epochs. If you think that people started to build a cathedral in 1315 and the people worked on that cathedral, it wasn't going to be finished until 1585. So they were thinking 200 years from now. Maybe by the time I die, this wall might be put up.
Wynton Marsalis
#47. Why does no one speak of the cultural advantages of the country? For example, is a well groomed, ecologically kept, sustainably fertile farm any less cultural, any less artful, than paintings of fat angels on church ceilings?
Gene Logsdon
#48. Speak, what trade art thou?
Why, sir, a carpenter.
Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What does thou with thy best apparel on?
William Shakespeare
#49. What makes for great art is the courage to speak and write and paint what you know and care about.
Audrey Flack
#50. It's rather like your voice. You put up with your voice and speak with it because you haven't any choice. But it's what you say that counts. It's what distinguishes all great art from the other kind.
John Fowles
#51. All photos speak a thousand words. This one contained a library.
Rivera Sun
#52. My whole life long I learn'd to love,
This hour my utmost art I prove.
And speak my passion - heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? 'Tis well!
Robert Browning
#53. As children, we come into the world with a natural desire to both speak and draw. Society makes sure that we learn language properly, right from the beginning, but art is treated as a gift of innate genius, something we either have or don't.
Charles De Lint
#54. An artist cannot speak about his art anymore than a plant can discuss horticulture.
Jean Cocteau
#55. Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life.
Oscar Wilde
#56. Art is a habit-forming drug. Art has absolutely no existence as veracity, as truth. People always speak of it with this great, religious reverence, but why should it be so revered?
Marcel Duchamp
#57. Sometimes the art pieces I gravitate toward speak to me in terms of narrative, at other times they speak to me in terms of mood.
Claudia Rankine
#58. Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.
Salman Rushdie
#59. Art is supposed to tell a story. It is supposed to be a piece of the soul that created it. Art is supposed to be alive, vibrant. It is supposed to speak directly to the spirit. To say things words alone could never say. Art is the essence of being.
Joseph R. Lallo
#60. I hope I will always have the ability to create art and live in a world where I can speak freely, and I can inspire people. I don't know what form that will take.
Madonna Ciccone
#61. In art we are once again able to do all the things we have forgotten; we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.
Madeleine L'Engle
#62. [Art] can speak its own language only as long as the images are alive which refuse and refute the established order.
Herbert Marcuse
#63. When I speak about freedom, it's about freedom of the spirit. Freedom of the spirit can't be represented by a body. It has to be art. It has to be all the colors. It has to be something that moves and has no boundaries.
Salma Hayek
#64. We all have a unique art, our personal passion that serves as a vessel through which our souls can speak. True happiness is found by filling it, and purpose is fulfilled by pouring it out.
Cristen Rodgers
#65. Actions speak louder than words, in fact. When we don't take action, we foster the mistaken reality of our old identity.
Eric Samuel Timm
#66. Your looks are laughable, unphotographable, yet you're my favorite work of art. Is your figure less than Greek, is your mouth a little weak? When you open it to speak, are you smart?
Chet Baker
#67. Why should I need an artist to explain a work of art to me? Why should it not speak out to me itself?
Mahatma Gandhi
#68. Religion is like an art gallery. One painting will speak to you more than another, and there's no need to explain or defend your taste.
Michael Muhammad Knight
#69. O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head
As is a winged messenger of heaven
William Shakespeare
#70. I speak for an art ... weary of its puny exploits, weary of pretending to be able, of being able, of doing a little better the same old thing, of going a little further along a dreary road.
Samuel Beckett
#71. The art of communicating is to speak with a non judging sensitivity and mean it rather than impulsively verbalizing whatever feelings arise; there's no better way to make a point.
Judith Orloff
#72. When we speak of the perfection of art, we must recollect what the materials are with which a painter contends with nature. For the light of the sun he has but patent yellow and white lead - for the darkest shade, umber or soot.
John Constable
#73. To introduce a new play only six weeks after another has been banned is also a way to speak one's piece to the government. It proves that art and liberty can grow back in one night under the clumsy foot which crushes them.
Victor Hugo
#75. Opposites though they are, both solitude and solidarity are essential if the artist is to produce works that are not only significant to his or her age, but that will also speak to future generations.
Rollo May
#76. Yes, I believe that the art of winning is through intimidation, and not necessarily do you have to speak about it.
Mark Spitz
#77. To speak and act truth with constancy and precision is nearly as difficult, and perhaps as meretorious, as to speak it under intimidation or penalty
John Ruskin
#78. We speak of profane arts; but there are none properly such; every art is holy in itself; it is the son of Eternal Light.
Esaias Tegner
#79. In the 'Garnethill' trilogy, people always forget that Maureen O'Donnell's dad was a journalist and she did art history at uni and her brother did law, but no-one ever thinks they're middle-class - they're just working class because they speak with accents.
Denise Mina
#80. The heart of the Waldorf method is that education is an art-it must speak to the child's experience. To educate the whole child, his heart and his will must be reached, as well as the mind.
Rudolf Steiner
#81. In our generation, everybody told us that it's really important and it's nice to be able to speak a lot of languages. It's an art, too. It really impresses me, people who speak, like, seven languages. I admire them so much, so I began with English, and then Spanish and maybe Portuguese.
Adele Exarchopoulos
#82. It seems to me that we become more dear one to the other, in together admiring works of art, which speak to the soul by their true grandeur.
Madame De Stael
#83. Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves.
Julia Morgan
#84. The noise around us determines how we speak. And how we listen. Just as a conversation suffers in a war zone, art suffers in a culture built on noise. So does our enjoyment of it.
Michael Gungor
#85. The downfall of the industry seems to actually be good for art. I think the industry will find their way once the focus shifts from its greed-based origins, downsizes, and begins to support creative visions that speak to our times and shifting ideals.
Saul Williams
#86. A part of all art is to make silence speak. The things left out in painting, the note withheld in music, the void in architecture - all are as necessary and as active as the utterance itself.
Freya Stark
#87. I speak only of myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own way." - Tristan Tzara "Dada Manifesto 1918
Tristan Tzara
#88. Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget'st so long / To speak of that which gives thee all thy might?
William Shakespeare
#89. When I speak to students and they ask how much money you can make in art, as if that is a reason to persue it, I tell them to do something else.
Joe Murray
#90. I do not know anything about Art with a capital A. What I do know about is my art. Because it concerns me. I do not speak for others. So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others. My art, however, speaks for me. It lights my way.
Mark Z. Danielewski
#91. THE ARTISTIC IMAGE IS ALWAYS A METONYM, WHERE ONE THING IS SUBSTITUTED FOR ANOTHER, THE SMALLER FOR THE GREATER. TO TELL OF WHAT IS LIVING, THE ARTIST USES SOMETHING DEAD; TO SPEAK OF THE INFINITE, HE SHOWS THE FINITE.
Andrei Tarkovsky
#92. Artistic symbols and myths speak out of the primordial, preconscious realm of the mind which is powerful and chaotic. Both symbol and myth are ways of bringing order and form into this chaos.
Rollo May
#93. To use the enemy's weapon is to play the enemy's game ... speak the truth and hear the truth.
Ursula K. Le Guin
#94. At its best, cinema does retain a remarkable ability to speak to people of every age, from every background, and in ways that almost any other art form in popular culture struggles to compete with.
David Puttnam
#95. But let's speak of art for a moment. Yes, art. I know a gentleman who makes excellent portraits. This gentleman is a camera.
Tristan Tzara
#96. Never speak of yourself to others; make them talk about themselves instead; therein lies the whole art of pleasing. Everybody knows it, and everyone forgets it.
Jules De Goncourt
#97. All art deals with the absurd and aims at the simple. Good art speaks truth, indeed is truth, perhaps the only truth.
Iris Murdoch
#98. One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
#99. The effect of music is so very much more powerful and penetrating than is that of the other arts, for these others speak only of the shadow, but music of the essence.
Arthur Schopenhauer
#100. We unlearn the art of speaking well when we cease to speak with God.
John Calvin
