Van Cliburn Quotes

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.

I want to write music that will outlive me.

When I'm dead, I wanna leave a body of work, like authors or great painters do.

When I'm dead, gone or whatever, people will always remember my name and the music I did during my time.

The goal every day of my life is to make some sort of artistic difference on a more profound level than just moshing.

I think it's every artist's dream to create something that will endure, something that people will listen to until there are no more people on earth to listen to things.

No artist knows in his own lifetime whether what he does will be the slightest good, because it takes at least seventy-five to a hundred years before the thing begins to sort itself out.

A truly great work of art breaks beyond the bounds of the period and culture in which it is created, so final judgement on a current book has to be deferred until it can be seen outside this present moment.

The great poet is a great artist. He is painter and sculptor. The greatest pictures and statues have been painted and chiseled with words. They outlast all others.

A lot of my movies have come to be thought about only years after the fact, and I'm sad about that but also happy about it in a way, as it's given them longevity.

Every man of genius is considerably helped by being dead.

Art is longer than life.

I think an artist's true worth comes through an inter-generational thing - when you go beyond your own time, and start influencing people in a greater way than just what surrounds you.

I've achieved what every artist wants, which is that some of their work will outlive them.

Whatever happens in my life from now on, I know the day I finally die - the final act of my script - people will always make references to the work I've done with Almodovar.

I want to make music that stands the test of time.

I felt like it was inevitable that I was going to fail in life and die young. So I was frantically scrambling to document my stunts and pack my message into a bottle. I thought maybe I could be discovered after I'd died, like Van Gogh.

I rage against Vincent van Gogh for needing to die at 37, after painting for only ten years.

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

Audiences aren't going to get rid of me. One thing I can say, with absolute certainty, is that my shows will still be performed when I'm dead, buried and forgotten. They're going to absolutely outlive me, which is a wonderful thing to think about.

When I'm dead, I wanna leave a body of work, like authors or great painters do. I don't wanna get ideas above my station, but why shouldn't this be comparable? Pop music was supposed to be a flash in the pan, but here we are 50 years later, and it means something to us, and it always will do. It's incredibly important.

Our music will continue to have an impact in people's lives long after we finally call it quits.

I wasn't sure pop art or my work would last more than six months.

Everything you write as an artist is about your legacy and your catalog and how you would look in a museum.

The impact that you can leave on the other person through your films holds way more weight than just being seen at a party or any other appearance, or being seen at a freaking airport.