Lucian Freud Quotes

Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid.

One can be absolutely truthful and sincere even though admittedly the most outrageous liar. Fiction and invention are of the very fabric of life.

Sometimes my art is just an illusion - or is it?

What is called a sincere work is one that is endowed with enough strength to give reality to an illusion.

Most of the songs I write are just very directly from my life. I don't have a big imagination. Whenever I tried to write from fantasy, it comes out sounding really fake.

I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.

Picasso said, 'Art is a lie that tells the truth.' What if you just want to tell the truth and not lie about it?

The poet nothing affirmeth and therefore never lieth.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

Lying and art are very allied. But after you lie, you get to the truth.

You can be very honest without telling the truth, at least in art.

What is the difference between the novelist and the liar? At some moments, I have often wondered.

You know what ART stands for? Above Real Truth.

If you can't find the exact quote you want, make it up.

Writers tell more truths, and more lies, than most.

Artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself.

A woman who doesn't lie is a woman without imagination and without sympathy.

if you tell yourself the great lie of bad art-that you are in charge-your chance at the truth will be lost. The truth isn't always pretty.

I would advise him who wishes to imitate well, to look closely into life and manners, and thereby to learn to express them with truth.

Fiction writing is a strange business when you think about it. You sit down and weave a network of lies to explore deeper truths.

I want that every piece of art be honest, never mind what it is about.

Music is not simply an orchestration of something, but it's also not something as trivial as honesty.

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

Some music comes from a real place; some music comes from your imagination. It's difficult to find out what's real and what's not, especially with the gangster stuff.

My songs are not pretty. They're what I call optimistic realism.