Robert Henri Quotes

Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something.

The process of writing and creating and answering that very unique call inside yourself has nothing to do with agents and sales and all that stuff.

I've never not been pleased with one of my albums. I figure because it's spoken word, there will be people who relate to it, and people who don't, so I don't worry about any of that. I've been doing it for over twenty years. I've always written because it was something I had to do, never for the glory.

I never thought in terms of a "breakthrough" film. I wasn't looking for fame or a career path into Hollywood. I was doing it for myself. I just wanted to make a film that I really loved. If other people liked it, great. But you can never guess what other people are going to like.

My primary thing is to make a painting, not necessarily to make a painting to sell for gazillions of dollars, but just to make a painting.

All any artist can do is please themselves.

I'm not looking to be an artist to make money. I'm looking to be an artist.

I have always tried to work according to what affects me, to a script that I like because it touches me in some way, without deliberately pursuing a commercial career or a particular image.

I don't feel like I'm on a mission. I'm trying to play music that I like to play and like to listen to.

But where there is no art show, I would still be painting.

I consider myself first of all an artist. My work is about my creativity - why I create and not for whom.

When it comes to art, you just need to be focused on doing a great thing. Not thinking all about the business.

I don't make art to make money, I make art so I can make art.

As an artist, you have to do what you feel passionate about. It has to be something you can connect with.

Everything I do creatively is never for money.

We don't play to be seen. I'm addicted to music, not audiences.

I try not to think about the idea of reaching more and more people, because once you get in that mindset, I think you lose the point of why you're doing it in the first place. Still, the best feeling I ever get is when I finish a song, and it exists, and it didn't exist before, and now it's there, and it makes me feel a certain way.

For the serious artist does not satisfy needs

Art for art's sake, and creation for creation's sake, and love for love's sake

To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.

I have never expected anything from my work but the satisfaction I could get from it by the very fact of painting and saying what I couldn't say otherwise.

There are probably seven persons, in all, who really like my work; and they are enough. I should write even if I were the only patient reader, for my aim is merely self-expression.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

There's only one reason for my whole life, and that's art. Nothing else counts; nothing else gives me pleasure; nothing else gives me satisfaction.

I'm just excited that I get to put out the music I love versus music just for the sake of it.