Robert Caro Quotes

What we have as artists is the immortalization opportunity that others don't have, because our work is lasting; it's there forever to view.

I don't want to have one hit, one song of the summer, and then have me disappear forever. I really want my things to last, and I want my songs and my bodies of work to resonate with people. I want to hit people - at least make a dent in them. I want to make a mark somehow.

I've achieved what every artist wants, which is that some of their work will outlive them.

Never can the innate power of a work be hidden or locked away. A work of art can be forgotten by time; it can be forbidden and rejected but the elemental will always prevail over the ephemeral.

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

When I'm dead, I wanna leave a body of work, like authors or great painters do. I don't wanna get ideas above my station, but why shouldn't this be comparable? Pop music was supposed to be a flash in the pan, but here we are 50 years later, and it means something to us, and it always will do. It's incredibly important.

All the buzz can be very much here today and gone tomorrow, but my focus is creating music that will last forever.

Art may not have the power to change the course of history, but it can provide a perspective on historical events that needs to be heard, even if it's seldom heeded. After all the temporary influences that once directed the course of history have vanished, great art survives and continues to speak to each generation.

I want 'Rent' to last forever.

Poetry's always dead, you know? You don't realize how good poetry is until 15 years later.

It is our art that has an opportunity to leave a footprint in the sand. They don't wrap fish in our work.

Whatever happens in my life from now on, I know the day I finally die - the final act of my script - people will always make references to the work I've done with Almodovar.

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

Shakespeare's work is like a good song: you never really forget the main lines.

I think that's what really a substantial work is, it's forever. It's the truth now and it was the truth then, and it will be the truth tomorrow.

Audiences aren't going to get rid of me. One thing I can say, with absolute certainty, is that my shows will still be performed when I'm dead, buried and forgotten. They're going to absolutely outlive me, which is a wonderful thing to think about.

Art goes beyond politics. Even if there are writers who are involved in politics, eventually, in one or two centuries, it's not their politics which is going to count, but the fact of having given life to feelings, of having created characters and made a living work of art.

A legacy is a lot of times determined by how people accept your music. And sometimes people's legacy starts late or starts early, or they last a long time or a short amount of time. As a musician, I've never taken an approach of wanting to try to control that because I don't think that I can.

When you look at my father's works, he systematically dated everything. He also wanted to document what he knew would be the work of the century.

I don't want my music to be of its time; I want it to be timeless.

Good art doesn't really have an expiration date on it.

The first among mankind will always be those who make something imperishable out of a sheet of paper, a canvas, a piece of marble, or a few sounds

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavour. The beauty endures. A work of art lives...through the generations and centuries.

I've really only had one (dream) since I got into this business at 13 years old, which was to be in this business forever. Once I did my first television commercial, I caught that itch and that bug. I want to be a part of pieces of art - as far as cinema is concerned - that people will want to see for generations to come. That's my dream.