Matt Damon Quotes

The goal of art is to inspire people to look inward.

One of the wonderful things about the actor's life is that's what we have the opportunity to do; we bring all these aspects of ourselves and of our personal lives into the work that we do.

The importance of the arts to the societies in which they thrive is well documented.

So writing became a way to get to act in things that I thought were meaningful, and hopefully write stronger roles for other women.

Human requirements are the inspiration for art.

One must go for a film with an open mind; a film best impacts you when your mind is a blank page to the film.

I don't like to be entertaining. I don't like the feeling of being entertaining. If there was a musical or a comedy that was not just for entertainment but was rooted in something I could relate to on a real level, then I think I would do it.

You don't paint pictures to put them in your attic. You want people to look at them.

As a consumer, I don't create art, but I think whatever the message is, art has to touch you.

The role of art in society differs for every artist.

My whole career I've been interested by the distinction between an emotional and an intellectual response to an artwork.

I think a lot of people came into rock n' roll to try to change the world. I came into rock n' roll to make music.

Art is meant to disturb.

As an actor, it's exciting to play a role that's so far from what you are and to have people respond to it like a real human being!

I feel like there's such a responsibility, when you make a film, to enlighten people, to make them think, to make them laugh, or even just to be entertaining.

The key to good art is to make something that means something to you.

At this point, in 2008, if you put out a book, a movie, or write a verse, paint a painting, it should have some sort of social value.

I'm in show business, and I'm an entertainer, but I also see myself as an artist doing social and spiritual work.

Everything about art has become problematic; its inner life, its relation to society, even its right to exist.

I sing as an actress. Whatever I'm singing about, I just become the story.

You can't tell people how to feel when they read your work. You can only hope to connect.

If you're a song writer, it's a bit different because you are expressing your own words, feelings, perspective. As an actor, you are doing your best to interpret and express the root of the character's perspective which have been established by the writer. There are parallels of performing. Tapping into your own emotional piggy bank. The biggest commonality is if you are successful in either industry, you get free snacks all the time.

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.

Art does not exist for politics, or for instruction- it exists primarily for pleasure, or it is nothing.