James Baldwin Quotes

I love what Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh and Jesus all said - that love is really the driving principle of the creative act. In fact, they would say that great art is always inspired by love.

I once asked a distinguished artist what place he gave to labor in art. "Labor," he in effect said, "is the beginning, the middle, and the end of art." Turning then to another--"And you," I inquired, "what do you consider as the great force in art?" "Love," he replied. In their two answers I found but one truth.

All great art contains an element of the irrational.

In order to work and to become an artist one needs love. At least, one who wants sentiment in his work must in the first place feel it himself, and live with his heart

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

One's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes.

An artist's love for what they create is what creates love.

In the domain of art there is no light without heat.

To make art you need to be inspired.

An artist cannot deny art, nor would he want to. A lover cannot deny love.

Picasso says that an artists paints not to ask a question but because he has found something and he wants to share—he cannot help it—what he has found.

Art is the great stimulus to life.

As an artist, you just want to keep creating, keep finding a place that really inspires you that feels fresh and new and keep it exciting.

Art is the funnel, as it were, through which spirit is poured into life.

To create art with all the passion in one's soul is to live art with all the beauty in one's heart.

We do not make art. We have unnamable motors and dangerous impulses that occupy our thoughts.

A work-in-progress generates its own energy field. You, the artist or entrepreneur, are pouring love into the work; you are suffusing it with passion and intention and hope.

Art must be an expression of love or it is nothing.

In the arts, as in life, everything is possible provided it is based on love.

You paint the way you have to in order to give. That's life itself, and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing, but it has nothing to do with knowing, it has to do with giving.

Art arises from sources other than logic." (p.32)

You must have the devil in you to succeed in the arts.

Art comes from joy and pain...But mostly from pain.

To paint is to love again, and to love is to live life to the fullest.

I owe it all to art books, chocolate and young men.