Anish Kapoor Quotes

Once an object has been incorporated in a picture it accepts a new destiny.

To me, a story can be both concrete and abstract, or a concrete story can hold abstractions. And abstractions are things that really can't be said so well with words.

One of the things you do as a writer and as a filmmaker is grasp for resonant symbols and imagery without necessarily fully understanding it yourself.

How do I define a work of art? It is not an asset in the stock-exchange sense, but a man's timid attempt to repeat the miracle that the simplest peasant girl is capable of at any time, that of magically producing life out of nothing.

Art is partly communication, but only partly. The rest is discovery.

If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.

If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable rather than its literal narrative.

To create a work of art is to create the world.

In an artwork you're always looking for artistic decisions, so an ashtray is perfect. An ashtray has got life and death.

I show elements of the set in my pictures because it's not real. When I see movies, I often love the 'making of' more than the movie itself. It's not so final. When you have a woman just standing there, it doesn't mean much.

Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.

What you compose with is neither here nor there, you compose with words, or you compose with stone plants and trees, or you compose with events; the Sheriff's officer, or whatever.

Art is an attempt to integrate evil.

I'm much more interested in allowing a story to happen, and people find whatever meaning is in there.

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Writers can take offense when someone asks what's real or autobiographical in our work because, to us, that's not what counts. The bits taken from life are tiny scales on the dragon's tail - what about that whole beautiful writhing, fire-breathing dragon?

When you're telling stories, you are actually trying to illuminate some portion of the truth in an artful way. The story may immediately seem to be a lie, but it's like an impressionistic painting - you see the light and the color better than you would with a photo-realistic piece.

Literature is the question minus the answer.

What you look for in a picture is a metaphor, something that means something more, that makes you think about things you've seen or thought about.

I'm of the Samuel Goldwyn school of writing: If you need to send a message, call Western Union. Any messages people take away from my books are the ones they see in them.

It's not a film-maker's job to explain his technique, but to tell his story the best way he can.

Homer has taught all other poets the art of telling lies skillfully.

I'm a very conceptual writer.

I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language.

What interests me most is when a work of art is no longer just an object, but also touches reality and life.