Steven Bochco Quotes

I don't know if it's art, but I know I like it.

The painter who draws by practise and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror which reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same.

Though the artist must remain master of his craft, the surface, at times raised to the highest pitch of loveliness, should transmit to the beholder the sensation which possessed the artist.

I'm a romantic. The impressionists have always been my favorites. I like prettiness - beauty, or what I perceive as beauty.

I'm an aesthetic empiricist. If you like something, it doesn't matter who made it. There really is no objective standard other than your own taste. You develop your own tastes, you find things that do or do not fit your tastes, and therefore are or are not 'good.' Whether they have been labeled as produced by the right person is another matter.

How does an artist know when the line that he just painted is good or not good? That's the catch. De Kooning was the greatest of my contemporaries in art, and he knew when he'd done a good line. When he didn't, he threw it away. I wish I'd thrown away some of mine.

Everyone carries his own inch rule of taste, and amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Art is always good. It just depends if you like or not.

We'd rather see a picture that we liked then dump on one we didn't.

There are so many reactions to art that make sense to me - but 'ick' means something.

There is only one true thing: instantly paint what you see. When you've got it, you've got it. When you haven't, you begin again. All the rest is humbug.

Pretty much everything that I pick, when it comes to choosing roles, is just based on things and materials that grabs me. It's pretty much the subject matter that I gravitate towards.

Ultimately, taste is so niche and so personal.

I think I was always obsessed with esthetics.

I always loved aesthetics. Not particularly fashion, but an idea of beauty.

You know, as photographers, we do pictures, and people either like them or they hate them.

I think everybody understands the fact that the right person will be cast for the role. So it's not theirs really to lose; they're just trying to find the right person.

I don't really have a specific formula I follow to find the right script or role. It's always just very instinctive.

An artist is attracted to certain kinds of form without knowing why. You adopt a position intuitively; only later do you attempt to rationalize or even justify it.

One thing I don't do anymore as I've gotten older is that I don't make big blanket statements about whether or not an artist is good or bad.

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

The duty of literature is to note what counts, and to light up what is suited to the light. If it ceases to choose and to love, it becomes like a woman who gives herself without preference.

There are some readers who have never read an essay on taste; and if they take my advice they never will, for they can no more improve their taste by so doing than they could improve their appetite or digestion by studying a cookery-book.

In art, in taste, in life, in speech, you decide from feeling, and not from reason. If we were obliged to enter into a theoretical deliberation on every occasion before we act, life would be at a stand, and Art would be impracticable.