John Legend Quotes

But I don't think as film-makers it is our responsibility that every time we make a film we should be saying something. If you are entertaining people, that's more than enough.

What the artist owes the world is his work; not a model for living.

I think every artist should follow their vision; their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for. That said though, I think also artists have, continuously good artists, have been good for their times.

To me, art's highest purpose is to entertain, to enlighten, to inspire, to evoke emotion and to change an audience in some way, big or small.

It is very easy to make clear what you want a film to say, but I did not wish to engage in overt propaganda, even for the right cause. I wanted to create an experience through the films, something where people could have the freedom of their own response to them.

It is difficult to make political art work.

I think there is a debate in the arts about, you know, whether we must strive for art for art's sake, and you know, kind of try to keep political debate out of our work. And to that I say, I'd like you to show me an example of, you know, this so-called apolitical art. I don't think there's any such thing.

The fact is that Hollywood, from as early as the sixties to the present time, has ghettoized cinema into the big industry, a marketing industry. In doing this, the audiences have lost touch with the aspects of film which were to be informative and educational and even spiritual.

It's one of the functions of the theater to shock and titillate and appall, apart from entertain and delight.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Art is art. Politics is politics. It's very hard to get them together.

My films are as much for the people as they are for me. The reception affects me, but doesn't change me as a person. That's important.

At this point, in 2008, if you put out a book, a movie, or write a verse, paint a painting, it should have some sort of social value.

It is important to be conscious of the message that you're putting out there. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get a movie to the screen. I do feel a certain element of responsibility to say something worth saying with it, as well as entertainment.

I think, for some artists, the fear of taking on a political identity stems from not wanting to be pigeonholed as political actor or a political musician. It becomes this thing where somehow your art can no longer exist on its own and be multifaceted.

Some of the greatest artists did their best work when they got political.

Not all artists have a responsibility to be socially or politically aware, but they do have a responsibility to make great art. They have to find some truth and put that in their music.

I'm living as an artist, and that's a staggering feeling, it's a total luxury. And because you have this amazing chance, with so much freedom, I'm determined to make something that is worth that. I feel this responsibility - to create something that makes an audience feel, which takes them somewhere. But that's very hard to achieve.

Movies have power. Power to impact society and the choices we make. I want to entertain, but I also want to say something to the world.

In some ways, you could argue, television is doing far more interesting work than the movies. It's more fulfilling.

I want to put concepts in front of people that make them laugh or smile or even hate what I do. I'm not interested in just putting clothes in stores.

One doesn't make art for other people, even though I am very concerned with the viewer.

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

Great music is its own movie, already. And the challenge, as a music fan, is to keep the song as powerful as it wants to be, to not tamper with it and to somehow give it a home.

My songs are the reflection of how I think and how I feel in that moment. But I'm conscious of the fact that artists have a responsibility before the masses and they have to take care with their words.