Top 100 Sayings About Good Artists
#2. Great art is always a way of concentrating, reinventing what is called fact, what we know of our existence- a reconcentration ... tearing away the veils, the attitudes people acquire of their time and earlier time. Really good artists tear down those veils
Francis Bacon
#3. I suppose the good artists, the righteous artists, somehow manage to be exuberant, and the embarrassed artist has this idea that everybody has to stop being so excited, which I find so distasteful.
John Currin
#4. Every man who is any kind of artist has a great deal of female in him. I act and give of myself as a man, but I register and receive with the soul of a woman. The only really good artists are feminine. I can't admit the existence of an artist whose dominant personality is masculine.
Orson Welles
#5. I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.
Johnny Marr
#8. But I'm interested in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. I hear there are some of the worst Matisses there. I like seeing bad art by good artists. It's inspiring. I'm able to identify with them. It makes them real.
Jemima Kirke
#9. Bad artists ignore the darkness of human existence. Good artists often get stuck there. Great artists embrace the full catastrophe of our condition and find beyond it an even deeper truth of peace, healing, and redemption.
Martha N. Beck
#10. Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius - and I count myself among these - have to restore the lost connection once more.
Kathe Kollwitz
#11. I like to imagine that the Neanderthals were all really good artists.
Jim Drain
#12. I've heard many times that with all good artists it's ultimately a self-portrait even if it's an abstraction. I feel my work is very much who I am. I didn't try to make it that way; it just is. It reflects who I am and also my interests.
Joyce Tenneson
#13. I have worked with several art directors and production designers who are just magnificent. Dave Getz, Paul Felix, Ian Gooding ... just amazing artists, and I would say, if I had anything to do with it, I just pick good artists!
Roy Conli
#14. For true art there is no such thing as preparatory schooling, but there are certainly preparations; the best, however, is when the least pupil takes a share in master's work. Colour-grinders have turned into very good artists.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
#15. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating.
Oscar Wilde
#16. Most artists work all the time, they do actually, especially good artists, they work all the time, what else is there to do? I mean you do.
David Hockney
#17. All kids, when they go to school, are pretty good artists and dancers and singers and poets. All that gets buried, basically through being educated, or brainwashed.
William Wiley
#18. We don't often see our own stories. Good artists are the ones that whisper our own stories back to us.
Tori Amos
#19. Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.
Walter Isaacson
#20. I've always seen it as the role of an artist to drag his inside out, give the audience all you've got. Writers, actors, singers, all good artists do the same. It isn't supposed to be easy.
Henry Rollins
#21. Good artists exist in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are.
Dave Eggers
#22. It's always exciting to get together with fellow artists to support a good cause.
Frankie J. Grande
#23. I wasn't born an artist. I was really good in science as a kid. I probably shouldn't have been an artist because I'm much more interested in science. But I was raised by artists. I can't really escape it.
Julie Delpy
#24. Craft' gets a bad rap. Mediocre art is not caused by craft; it is caused by artists. Good art employs whatever craft works best.
Walter Darby Bannard
#25. When you think back in history about producers and artists or writers who've had good synergy, a lot of times they date, or they're married, or there's a friendship and a kinship.
Solange Knowles
#26. My personality is very good for nurturing. I'm very empathetic to my artists. You speak to anyone who's worked with me and they'll say, "Oh yeah, Steve's great. He doesn't have the ego."
Steve Lillywhite
#27. There are so many great artists and most of them are women, but that's good - the more the merrier!
Rachel Stevens
#28. The good thing about being undiscovered is that every time you begin a new writing project it feels like this work will be the best one you have done, this one will be better than the last, a higher standard of writing, and that's the way it should be.
Robert Black
#29. Cookery is a wholly unselfish art: as 'art for art's sake' it is unthinkable. A man may sing in his bath every morning without the least encouragement, but no cook can cook just for his or her own sake in a like manner. All good cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for.
Andre Simon
#30. All good art is seditious, but the people in authority can never recognise it. I think when you mention sedition, artists are the ones whose eyes light up thinking, 'Oh, yes, I want some of that!'
Michael Leunig
#31. I think that artists and musicians can do as much harm as good for causes if they tie their names to lots of things, especially if they aren't really doing much to meaningfully push their causes forward.
Damian Kulash
#32. I'm a believer in the notion that artists who do good work believe in the ideas of extremes.
Wayne Thiebaud
#33. There are good and bad critics like good or bad artists. A good critic says why they didn't like it. A bad critic gives it away that they don't like you as a person. I quite like that as well, because it means that I've won.
Ricky Gervais
#34. It's a sign of this film's greatness that the enormous sadness that accompanies the final leave-taking of the circus interior is a good deal more than the conclusion of an unpretentious evening's entertainments; it's a sublime and awesome coda to the career of one of this century's greatest artists.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
#35. I want to change the pop world one sequin at a time. Artists tend to take themselves way too seriously and don't enjoy the fun of making an impact on culture. I just have a good time and sequins represent a good time.
Lady Gaga
#36. Only the bad artists of the nineteenth century were frightened by the invention of photography; the good ones all welcomed it and used it.
Kenneth Clark
#37. I suppose Spotify is a good thing. The ads are quite annoying, but a lot of people seem to like it and use it. I don't myself, but it seems like a good idea, and the labels are getting a huge amount of money off it, but the artists aren't, so that must be good for them ... but not us.
Calvin Harris
#38. Young artists wish for inspired moments. And you find them; you take them; eager artists are bandits. Theatrical moments arrive, and ... you grab. Good! You know it will draw attention to you. But you aim to be more than bandits, no? So, okay ... now be Samurai.
Jerzy Grotowski
#39. People actually like supporting the artists whose work they like. It makes them feel happy. You don't have to force them. And if you force them, they don't feel as good.
Cory Doctorow
#40. Much of the blame is the malarkey that artists have created to glorify war, which as we all know, is nonsense, and a good deal worse than that - romantic pictures of battle, and of the dead and men in uniform and all that. And I did not want to have that story told again.
Kurt Vonnegut
#41. If you are handed something, it's a blessing and a curse. Look at hip hop artists, they produced everything themselves. Even people like Robert De Niro are getting into production. Again, it's art vs. marketing. Not everyone can take the risk. You have to break a few eggs to make a good omelet.
Michael Winslow
#42. All forms of madness, bizarre habits, awkwardness in society, general clumsiness, are justified in the person who creates good art.
Roman Payne
#43. Individuality and originality is was separates good and great artists! How much they can move people with what they do! If they can shake the heart with what they do, is the key!
Hiromi
#44. Actors in general are pretty good bullshit artists; we're good at just chewing the fat, interacting with people. So we're good ambassadors for movies.
John C. Reilly
#45. The artist who is not also a craftsman is no good; but, alas, most of our artists are nothing else.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
#46. I love music that has good catchy choruses and fits into many different genres ... I like real artists, that write their own material and are great performers.
Perez Hilton
#47. When your hair is rising, that's when you know it's a good song - that's happened to me with some artists and some songs, John Lennon songs or when Nina Simone sings. It's great to make those moments yourself.
Jose Gonzalez
#48. There are no teachers, saints, prophets, good people, but the artists.
Virginia Woolf
#49. There are a lot of artists that I love, and I think they're really talented, and they're good dancers as well. I've always wished that I could combine that.
Agnetha Faltskog
#50. In a good society, people are interested in the hard lives of the workers, not in the easy lives of the artists and models!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#51. Music is just a really fun hobby that I do, because I'm actually really good about writing songs and producing. People don't realize this, but I am an excellent writer for artists.
Tila Tequila
#52. I think most artists will experience a lot of negative people on Twitter but, thank God, I've got so many followers that I'm not able to see them that much. I'll see some from time to time but, for the most part, I always focus on something good.
Nicki Minaj
#53. Lofts were never supposed to be homes. They were vacant old factories and warehouses, taken over by artists looking for cheap space and good light.
Virginia Postrel
#54. The perfect party for me is having six to 12 people for dinner Friday or Saturday - good, fun friends, a lot of artists. I have a beautiful deck that looks over the canyon and Los Angeles on one side, so it's very pretty at night. It's a great opportunity to catch up with friends.
Sofia Milos
#55. I'm a big fan of certain new acts. I love any genre of music, and I think it's really great to see that there are new artists coming through. It's kinda funny to think that I'm like the old man on campus now. But I'm really happy for groups like One Direction. I think they're really good guys.
Joe Jonas
#56. Anytime I get to be around the fans it's always a good time, especially during Music Fest. CMA puts together an event that allows artists to make that personal connection with the fans and it's wonderful. I look at it as our chance to give back to them and let them know we appreciate their support.
Billy Currington
#57. I'm in a position where, theoretically, I could play the same ten concertos and make a very good living bouncing around playing Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Barber, but I really think artists should keep pushing limits and trying new things.
Joshua Bell
#58. There seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I'm surprised aren't being used on MTV.
David Bowie
#59. I guess I learned a couple of good lessons from my dad. One was when you're creating something, what you want when you're working with a team of other artists, is everybody to work with some creative freedom, so that you really get the best out of everybody.
Brian Henson
#60. Most comic scriptwriters are very bad. The artists are good, but the writers are so bad.
Harry Harrison
#61. For artists it's a lot easier to make art in bad times than it is in good times. When you've got no money it's easy to just drink your way through it and make great art. But if you're making lots of money it can be very problematic.
Damien Hirst
#62. I'm very envious of the few artists who are any good and still do portraits.
Howard Hodgkin
#63. Artists are strange people. They make the world a beautiful place, and make others feel good, but they are a bunch of lonely people. Artists are people with unfulfilled, unrealistic dreams, lonely, and always searching for perfection.
Ama H. Vanniarachchy
#64. Well, when you're recording an album, artists have what they feel like is good music, and the label, they're trying to sell the album. So those two ideas clash sometimes, but in the end it always works out. When you put the two together, that's a good thing.
Kris Allen
#65. I've learned, like with anything else, business is only as good as your connections and your resources. And some of the resources that I have are the fact that I work with huge artists.
Daymond John
#66. I feel a lot more comfortable being me these days. I'm constantly told that my work is good. A lot of fans and a lot of other artists say my songs and albums mean a lot to them. Isn't that what's important?
Lucinda Williams
#67. There were some extremely good teachers there that were great artists really in their own right. It was actually very hard to concentrate on getting down to going any work being an art student especially when it's a flighty thing at best.
Graham Coxon
#68. Katagiri Roshi says: "Poor artists. They suffer very much. They finish a masterpiece and they are not satisfied. They want to go on and do another." Yes, but it's better to go on and do another if you have the urge than to start drinking and become alcoholic or eat a pound of good fudge and get fat.
Natalie Goldberg
#69. In the beginning Marvel created the Bullpen and the Style. And the Bullpen was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the Artists. And the Spirit of Marvel said, Let there be The Fantasic Four. And there was The Fantasic Four. And Marvel saw The Fantasic Four. And it was good.
Stan Lee
#70. I gotta say, the Catholic Church has churned out a lot of great artists and directors and actors, so if that's all they do, that's fine by me. If they're good at churning out tortured artists, that's great!
Paul Rust
#71. I think that most artists scorned would prefer to be known as the one with the genius brain risking no career over the one with the good brain and great career.
Criss Jami
#72. Artists are always good for conversation, so long as you want to talk about their art.
Craig Johnson
#73. I am thankful that geniuses and artists and good people, no matter how hard it is, will eventually be recognized. I am doubly thankful that also goes for idiots.
Elayne Boosler
#74. During freedom struggle, It were authors and artists who made the Nation stand with their pen, and now their pen can create an environment of renaissance when Independent India is on the path of Good Governance.
Narendra Modi
#75. Philadelphia's a good science-fiction town. There are many professional writers here, like Michael Swanwick, Tom Purdom, Gregory Frost, Victoria McManus and others. There are professional artists such as Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger and Susan McAninley.
Gardner Dozois
#77. It's not possible to present an accurate picture of our culture without all the voices of the people in the culture. So at the emerging level, you can't have a good survey art show without women and artists of color.
Frida Kahlo
#78. I wouldn't say I'm underrated, but more reserved. Only time will tell, but I've been good so far in being consistent and making hit after hit writing for myself and other artists, from rap to R&B, and being able to make those different records.
Nayvadius Cash
#79. I've been fortunate to work with Alfre Woodard and Jeffrey Wright; people who are artists, have careers, longevity and full lives. That looks good to me.
Nicole Beharie
#80. It's always good when you can bring two artists together who are totally different.
Fantasia Barrino
#81. Rock and roll was a good way to, to first recognize the, the confluence of white artists with it but also to kind of pretty it up a little bit, clean it up a little bit, make it more acceptable to, to people.
Cosimo Matassa
#82. People who are artists, they want their music, their art, their acting craft to get out. And once it's appreciated, that seems to be, unfortunately, enough. But you got to take care of your business, surround yourself with good counsel, and that didn't happen.
Michael Wright
#83. This is a great turtle, Katie." "James." Millie brings the waffles to the table. "Are you blind?" Yeah, you tell him, Millie. Some people just can't appreciate good art. Millie holds her folded napkin up proudly. "It's a frog." True artists (like Picasso or me) are always misunderstood.
Jenny B. Jones
#84. What's good about many people liking the work is that when I want to collaborate or am interested in the synergy of artists working together, nobody ever says no to me when I ask to work with them.
Rei Kawakubo
#85. I used to have sort of mixed feelings about a producer whose only skills seemed to be going into the studio, schmoozing the artists and making them feel good. I can see now that in some cases, that's what you have to do because that's the only way you're going to get them to produce.
Todd Rundgren
#86. What do great artists do when you see a world around you that's in turmoil? Some of the best artists make you feel good (hah), they look to the future.
Nile Rodgers
#87. It's hard not to tell the truth with a camera. Artists are particularly good at that.
Edward Weston
#88. I hope that through my work, artists will take some chances, break some rules, and make art that comes from inside of them. I would like to be remembered as a kind person, a great Mom, and a bit unruly - in a good way!
Angela Cartwright
#89. The artists who stand out to me have a passion for what they do. There are a lot of people who can sing. It's just like when you go to church and people are singing because it sounds good, not because it feels good. There's a difference.
Jill Scott
#90. All artists are people of growth. It's like food, you take the good and leave the rest.
Andrew Jack
#91. Country music artists are staying true to their roots, keeping it country but throwing a little bit of rock flair in there which I think is a good thing.
Jason Aldean
#92. And since discriminating fans can pick and choose exactly what they want to buy, artists and their labels are more conscious than they've ever been of making sure that every song on a new album is as good as can be.
Edgar Bronfman Jr.
#93. Music being "good or bad" is a flawed idea. Artists make what they want to make and we either connect with it or we don't. Just because we relate to some songs more than others doesn't make the others less valid, we just don't understand them. In fact, we aren't meant to, and that's all right.
Jacob Bannon
#94. Surgeons are not technicians; they're not mechanics. They're artists. I see patterns where not many other people see patterns ... I think that's what made me a good surgeon, and now, that's what's making me a good writer.
Leonard Shlain
#95. Artists are mostly shits of the worst order. You wouldn't want one living next door to you. Think about it: Vincent Van Gogh living next door, coming over to borrow your ear and a cup of sugar every morning-Good God!
Stan Brakhage
#96. It should be if you're a good singer and a good songwriter, you should have your spot. You get everybody trying to release the prettiest guy, but that doesn't mean they're the best artist. Most of the time the true artists are just normal old dudes.
Randy Houser
#97. There's more well-known artists who aren't making as good songs as people who are just coming out of nowhere. That seems to be more typical in the last few years than ever.
Beck
#98. It's a good thing you and your pills weren't around a few hundred years ago or there never would have been a Vermeer or a Caravaggio. You'd have drugged "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Taking of Christ" right the hell out of them.
Jennifer Donnelly
#99. I'm not a pop artist. For me pop never was ... Pop is concerned with exteriors. I'm concerned with interiors. When I use objects, I see them as a vocabulary of feelings. I can spend a lot of time with objects, and they leave me as satisfied as a good meal. I don't think pop artists feel that way.
Jim Dine
#100. One argument goes that recessions are good for female artists because when money flies out the window, women are allowed in the house. The other claims that when money ebbs, so do prospects for women.
Jerry Saltz
