James Levine Quotes

Art should never try to be popular.

I'm not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn't.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

It's the ownership of what's off that's the beauty in art. Its not about being exactly perfect.

Whether it's a huge hit or sold five copies, as long artistically and creatively I can stand by what I did, then I'll feel successful.

I'd rather make a show 100 people need to see, than a show that 1000 people want to see.

Novelty is an essential attribute of the beautiful.

I feel like the point of being an artist is to have your own voice: to do it the way you would do it and not the way anyone else would do it. If you're a strong enough writer, then that voice is going to come out all the time, and I can't stop it from coming out, no matter what I do.

Whatever is about you that is translated into your art, that's gonna keep you completly original and fresh and I just think that, that's just the best advice I can give, to an artist creatively.

You never make all things for all people and can't always pander to the broadest denominator. I keep an eye toward doing the themes that interest me. Do they move me? Interest me? Make me think? When I run across something that is provocative in an unsettling way, it appeals to me.

I would rather write or record something great and have it overlooked than do mediocre work and have it be popular.

Any work of art that can be understood is the product of journalism.

I never set out to make a movie that was everything to everybody; if that were the case, we could all just take a picture of a tree and agree that the tree is beautiful and move on with our lives. I wouldn't even need to show up.

I'd rather have people really be able to step back and get their money's worth and look at me as a true artist than somebody who is just regurgitating other material.

If something is successful with the audience, it's automatically suspect; the reverse is to say that not to reach audiences is the greatest compliment an artist can receive!

I think that if you go about making movies to win Oscars, you're really going about it the wrong way.

Trying to guess what the (mass) audience wants and then trying to satisfy that is usually a bad recipe for getting something good.

The aim of every authentic artist is not to conform to the history of art, but to release himself from it in order to replace it with his own history.

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, 'What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?' And, 'How does creativity apply across the board?'

None of my movies have ever made any money, so it's not about commercial success for me. It's always the same thing. I want to create something valuable, something unusual and different that the world has never seen.

As a designer, I'm not interested in trend.

It's just I do things differently and I want people to appreciate music for what it is, and not because of a story.

A lot of the conceptualists and the prestige galleries are debasing themselves in presentations which have little else to them but the presentation.

No artist wants to be perceived as a regurgitator.

It's not ideal when art is seen as just some passing entertainment quickly thrown out into the market, like a consumer object. You have to let things settle and think about them.