Jonathan Lethem Quotes

Good artists exist in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are.

The only thing you can do as an artist is to come to the world, see what no one is doing, and leave behind one or two things that wouldn’t have happened without you.

Each picture with its particular environment and unique personal relationships is a world unto itself - separate and distinct. Picture makers lead dozens of lives - a life for each picture. And, by the same token, they perish a little when each picture is finished and that world comes to an end. In this respect it is a melancholy occupation.

Every artist makes herself born. You must bring the artist into the world yourself.

What’s any artist, but the dregs of his work?

I'd hate to be a writer forever and never perform, and I'd hate to perform and not write. I get sad if time has passed and I haven't written or made anything. I'm an artist.

You are an artist. What work of art will you leave behind?

That is the most important thing to me, what happens behind the closed doors in the studio and makes me an artist.

I feel just as much a part of 'War Eternal' as I do 'Will to Power.'

I just want to be a storyteller, and I think the way to do that is by your lyrics, by your visuals, by your choreography, by your dance. It's imperative as an artist.

An artist is an artist because he is not happy with the world, so he creates his own existence.

Artists recognize other artists as soon as the pencil begins to move.

The more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates.

We wish with our hands, that's what we do as artists.

When I did "Seven Easy Pieces," I actually re-performed the performances of other artists. It was such difficult work because I had to really go through the documentation, look through the sources, to ask the witnesses who saw it.

Maybe an artist's position in society is different today because it's more individualistic. You're not a direct servant anymore to the patron-you're an indirect servant, or a servant with a choice, or maybe you could not even serve. It's the way you make something. You draw it, you carve it out. Later you build it up from a flat surface. There is no other way to do a sculpture - you either add or you subtract. If you don't enjoy making work, then it's bad... artwork is brutal for so many people... I like the idea of an artist as sombody who works.

I am a pop artist, so my medium is public opinion and the world is my canvas.

As an artist, what you do is you put out material constantly. Whether it's films, or TV shows, music... and you know, you hope people respond to it. You always have to know, as well, that not everybody's gonna like it. And that's okay. It's not for everyone. It's just for the crusty nugs.

Artists who approach perfection do not have many ideas.

I'm a visual artist myself and always have been so it's very natural for me to be very concerned with presentation, whether it's artwork or onstage.

Most artists create foundations where they put their own work. Here I'm not putting my own work. I'm just creating the chambers.

Any artist can't get away from the way the world works, which is that it wants to know what you did, and you're only interested in what you're doing right now.

It's a lot easier to say you're a comic than a performance artist.

I always try to act like I'm some old school artist from the 1960s.

People're artists they're doing something, taking a hunk of chaps, giving it some order, some form, and presenting it saying here is my little song and dance, my chaos.