Robert Henri Quotes

The ordinary man puts up a struggle against all that is not himself, whereas it is against himself, in a limited but all-essential field, that the artist has to battle.

Over and over again, I'm trying to express or communicate these big and small struggles to the world, and really to myself.

Art is that which comes to a man, and stands between himself and an implacable witness: the work.

Well, any time you do anything good, it's man versus himself, right? That's the art, the challenge.

We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.

Joanne' is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

For me, 'Soul Deep' wasn't an easy thing to do.

To a writer, madness is a final distillation of self, a final editing down. It's the drowning out of false voices.

I'm not really interested in anyone's record or anyone - I'm always fighting with myself. I always try to do my best.

I think the biggest obstacle I still have to overcome is myself, and just kind of struggling every day with what to do with the work and where to go next.

You have to search the absolute demons of your soul to make a great record.

My paintings are only the ashes of my art

Everything I make starts very personally.

The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself.

One of the most important reasons for living is to do something - live outside of yourself and put together an idea, an idea that you want to explore and then complete... Awaken your creative sensitivities!

I have been taking every step toward the future every day through making many paintings and sculptures with my deep emotion hidden in my life.

The individual - man as a man, man as a brain, if you like - interests me more than what he makes because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves.

That's what's great about the arts. Everything inspires you, and you get a chance to grow from watching other people and how they do their work.

Anxiety is part of creativity, the need to get something out, the need to be rid of something or to get in touch with something within.

With every project you do, you bring out a part of yourself, and it seems to be quite a good way of expanding a person.

Some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.

I went to art school, I think it helped me a great deal because it taught me who I am.

You have within you many strong and cruel enemies to overcome. You must know that there are still a thousand ties which you must break. No one can tell you what they are; only you can tell by looking at yourself and into your heart.

In football you have an adversary; in cinema that adversary is yourself.

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.