Joseph Epstein Quotes

I never choose a genre over quality. I never think, 'I want to do that,' and sacrifice the fact it might not be very good.

In art, 'good enough' is not good enough.

If I were not able to separate the art from the artists, I think I would limit myself a great deal, and life wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

In art the best is good enough.

I don't want to do anything that violates my own personal code of ethics and morals.

When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there's a clash between the two, it's bad art.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

I take my fundamental cue from John Coltrane that says there must be a priority of integrity, honesty, decency, and mastery of craft.

There's some things that no amount of money can get me to do.

I'm not exactly in a position where I get to be super-picky about the roles I get. But I would also never want to be a part of something that I think is poor in taste or doesn't align with what I believe in.

I don't like doing substandard work... I can't sleep at night if I make a bad song.

My personal code of conduct and compliance with a wide range of government ethics provisions have ensured that I have maintained ethical standards.

In every project I do, I'm unwilling to compromise my values and morals and ethics. That's very important to me.

I have watched constantly that in our work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether my productions deal with fable or with stories of living action.

Integrity is important in building relationships. And is the foundation upon which many other qualities for success are built, such as respect, dignity, and trust.

I would rather spend my entire life doing nothing than have my name attached to something mediocre.

My own standards that I'll hold myself to is if the product that I'm making feels honest and it feels like I didn't compromise and it just came from an honest, correct place.

The workmanship was better than the subject matter.

Industry in art is a necessity - not a virtue - and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work.

Morality, taken as apart from religion, is but another name for decency of sin.

A work of art rests its merits in traditional qualities. It may constitute a remarkable feat in craftsmanship; it may be a searching study of psychological states; it may be a nostalgic glance backward; it may be any one of an infinite number of concepts, none of which may have any possible bearing upon its degree of newness.

Morality has nothing to do with such a man as I am.

MANY MANAGE TO SEPARATE THEIR LIFE FROM THEIR FILMS. THEY LIVE ONE WAY AND EXPRESS OTHER IDEAS IN THEIR WORKS. THEY ARE ABLE TO SPLIT THEIR CONSCIENCE. I CAN'T. TO ME CINEMA IS NOT JUST MY JOB: IT'S MY LIFE, AND EACH FILM IS AN ACT OF MY LIFE.

George Clooney says that I'm "the last of your kind." That's a nice quote. I kind of like that quote. I'm a guy who shakes your hand and will never let you down. I have a code of honor and I don't lie. I have a code of honor about life and that's what he meant. And you don't need a contract with me.

The carpenter is not the best who makes more chips than all the rest.