Marianne Moore Quotes

When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created.

Edgar Degas's famous sculpture, 'Little Dancer Aged Fourteen,' served as my muse for 'The Painted Girls.' I came upon a television documentary on the work, and as someone who held the sculpture in high esteem and who largely considered ballet to be the high-minded pursuit of privileged young girls, I was struck by what I would learn.

If you look at art history, at Goya or Gainsborough, it's always about acknowledging the people of your time who have influence.

I have been surrounded by artists and paintings throughout my life. My father Ted Dyer is an artist, and from a very early age I have spent time painting and drawing.

Seek art from every time and place, in any form, to connect with those who really move you.

It seemed like my professional life would take a more scientific route. I guess that plan started to become undone when, at the age of 17, I happened upon a screening of Alain Resnais' 'Hiroshima Mon Amour,' and it took my breath away.

I don't live in L.A. on purpose because I don't wanna be immersed in that. I have to have a real life, with real people, in order to inform what I'm doing; otherwise, it just becomes the snake eating its own tail. Vampirism.

What's the shelf life of a 1931 movie? If it still exists, there will always be film buffs and a niche audience who will want to see it. But in terms of people even understanding in common usage, some of the words we use to describe these movies, I don't know how long that's going to last.

With each passing decade, history becomes less real for us, less immediate and essential to our way of life, and so, like 'green' nature, more of a commodity or an advertising gimmick.

Because we are all of an oral tradition in our beginning histories, the voice of the poet in this particular society will be heard.

I believe in originality, primarily. However, it's important to know what there has been before to aim in that direction. Art history informs us. It informs our mind. I like to look at books, exhibitions, paintings, as a computer, subconsciously taking on information.

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

Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.

People writing about me have said that I've influenced a lot of people, and there are some artists who have credited me with influencing them.

Being a part of '12 Years a Slave' has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.

Most of the films that I've ever really responded to are ones that I feel were really involved in their times.

I feel most akin as an artist, in my life and my career, to Agatha Christie.

Observe that it is a great error to believe that all mediums of art are not closely tied to their time.

I wasn't an academic looking in books for ideas. But I educated myself about historical work that was similar to mine, to provide a frame of reference that wasn't the usual frame of reference of the New York art world and Europe.

The pull of history has been a strong theme in my life as a novelist.

The effect of studying masterpieces is to make me admire and do otherwise.

There are a few 'Raw Shark Texts' tattoos floating around the Internet now, so I'm gathering them up to post on my forum. It's a strange thought, knowing that readers are tattooing themselves with something I've created, but it feels wonderful to have added something that people care about to the world.

I don't look at our society today too much. My focus is still in the past, and part of the reason is because what I do - the wellspring of art, or what I do - l get from the blues. So I listen to the music of a particular period that I'm working on, and I think inside the music is clues to what is happening with the people.

I think the sensation of being moved by a piece of art is something that is really good for a person's soul.

In my creative life, David Bowie is definitely an enormous influence on me, being one of rock's greatest shapeshifters.