Duane Michals Quotes

So I don't think of myself as just a musician at all, I think of myself as an artist.

Because fashion essentially is art, and as an artist and someone who is also a musician and an artist in regards to drawing and painting, anything I can do that expresses my feelings is something I'm really drawn to.

The whole point in developing your own style is to find your own voice.

I just tried to be an artist in my own metier.

I've always considered myself a poet in everything that I do, whether it's photography or movie-making.

I express myself through my art.

Precocious and eccentric are okay. But I think that people in the arts represent something integral and kind of secretive in everybody else. So the reason people like some artists is because they're saying or doing something that they would like to do or say, but they don't have the balls or the means. People are really afraid to put their ass on the line. Just to put your face on a poster and put your name in big print and say "Come see me," that takes some cojones, you know? Ambition is nothing to be ashamed of.

Art is not the possession of the few who are recognized writers, painters, musicians; it is the authentic expression of any and all individuality.

There is actually no such thing as an Artist type. 'Artist' is just an economic designation, a box you tick on a form. We are all people, and we are all creative.

I guess I created LeRoy Neiman. Nobody else told me how to do it. Well, I'm a believer in the theory that the artist is as important as his work.

It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.

I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.

If I only acted, I feel like I wouldn't have enough creative expression over my own sensibility, and also if I only acted, the notion of surrendering my fate and future to other people is deeply unsettling to me and it would make me uncomfortable.

Art school had taught me it was far better to be a flamboyant failure than any kind of benign success.

Photography, painting or poetry - those are just extensions of me, how I perceive things; they are my way of communicating.

I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't really know what it was I wanted to say.

I'm just an artist and I'm doin' what I like to do.

The freedom of every artist is essential.

I'm not here to change the music world, but I'm definitely here to show what I can do and express myself through my music.

If I weren't the way I am, I shouldn't write my symphonies.

If you are a creative person, you try to create things that are an extension of yourself.

I think I'd say that my whole body of work is a reflection of who I am, but not any one specific thing.

Every art expression is rooted fundamentally in the personality and temperament of the artist.

There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.

It's only a few nutcases who do art for themselves, like Van Gogh.