Chris de Burgh Quotes

I think probably Australians have just a little more taste than most people.

The education, the cultural awareness, is different in Europe, especially in France, from that in the United States. So I think the public will be much more appreciative of many images.

One measure of the degree of civilization attained by a nation might fairly be the extent to which the nation's creative artists are supported, encouraged and esteemed by the nation as a whole.

I certainly consider a great appreciation of painting to be the best indication of a most perfect mind.

Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them.

In Europe, people in the arts are considered part of the intelligentsia; they are considered part of the elite.

Some Russian ballet master woman said there's no culture in America, but if you look you can find interesting stuff in this country, don't you think?

My Norwegian family says, 'You're the most grounded American we've ever met.'

I find that here in the States, audiences are generally less knowledgeable, from the cognitive point of view, though they are emotionally more receptive.

Something I notice speaking to writers from south of Hadrian's Wall is that the culture is different. At base, I think Scotland values its creative industries differently from England.

What is needed in the theater, in fact for all our art forms, is a vibrant critical tradition.

A high-brow is someone who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso.

Iconic Paris tells us: here are our three-star attractions, go thou and marvel. And so we gaze obediently at what we are told to gaze at, without exactly asking why.

I think Brits probably feel that Americans are more like us than vice-versa, if that makes sense. Because we get everything American over here in Britain, but yet there are things which are staunchly English that you guys don't have.

You know French means like sophisticated, well educated, so far.

The willingness to be self-critical in England is much greater than the willingness to be self-critical in America.

I am of the opinion that the appreciation and the desire for what is good takes more study and insight than does the understanding and test for the best music and art.

You have to be careful when you use beauty as a guide. There are many theories people didn't think were beautiful at the time but did find beautiful later - and vice versa.

The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure - if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don't like it, you don't understand and you ought to find out.

A lot of the players that I play with who are Canadian, they call me Patty. Before then, I never heard it. I didn't mind Patty.

The arts have only ever interested a small minority of people, which acted as a kind of nursery to support artists.

Foreigners see in our society virtues that we have not seen and problems that we have not seen.

I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts…. its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world, and procure them its praise.

I don’t know much about the arts, so I’m going to keep my cotton-picking hands off and let you people take care of it.

The audiences for some of many of our greatest cultural events—I’m thinking particularly of the Proms [traditional patriotic promenade concerts]—is still a long way from demonstrating that people from different backgrounds feel at ease in being part of this. I know this is not about making every audience completely representative, but if we claim great things for our sectors in terms of their power to bring people together, then we have a right to expect they will do that wherever they can.