Patti Smith Quotes

Part of the gestation of 'The Wall' was this business of alienation from the audience, and so the interesting thing was, what 'The Wall' eventually became was something that absolutely engaged the audience.

Painting is the passage from the chaos of the emotions to the order of the possible.

Art is essentially communication. It doesn't exist in a vacuum. That's why people make art, so other people can relate to it.

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

I am isolated as an artist, not as a person.

I guess I'm trying to write stuff that I, as a viewer, would connect to.

An artist who doesn't have any audience is not an artist.

Making art is a rite of initiation. People change their souls.

I wish to be of service to the artists of our own day, by showing them how a small beginning leads to the highest elevation, and how from so noble a situation it is possible to fall to utmost ruin, and consequently, how these arts resemble nature as shown in our human bodies.

I have a feeling that in art the need to understand and the need to communicate are one.

If you're an artist like a really, really long time, it stops being a performance. I'm not performing anymore. I reveal myself to the audience... I show you some of me. It's not a show no more.

Art is not living. It is the use of living. The artist has the ability to take the living and use it in a certain way and produce art.

Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.

Miley is always on, she’s always funny, she’s always writing songs, she’s always making music. The parallel of the film is like Miley says, going back to her home, going back to her roots. Getting back to Tennessee was art imitating life imitating art.

Producing perfection from imperfection is, after all, the highest of art forms.

I would rather be a swineherd, understood by the swine, than a poet misunderstood by men.

You don't make art after you become an artist. You become an artist by ceaselessly making art.

Making art, being creative, is risky, especially for actors, but everybody on the set is being creative. You're putting yourself out there with ideas, and to have your brain be free of stress so that it can actually do its best work, it feels like you want to have a real sense of intimacy and connection and trust with everybody.

A playwright... is... the litmus paper of the arts. He's got to be, because if he isn't working on the same wave length as the audience, no one would know what in hell he was talking about.

Sometimes I find myself at three o'clock in the morning painting something and throwing things around and seeing what works. I'd like to properly study fine art. I think it would be quite an interesting endeavor.

If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement.

In reality, however, an artist is a product of art

If I were of the trade, I should naturalize art as much as they "artialize" nature.

I feel the most connected to my art when it comes from my real life and hopefully the audience feels that.