Donald Barthelme Quotes

I don't want to compare myself to Picasso, but he had four or five periods in his life. Any good artist grows and changes and matures.

Every artist makes himself born. It is very much harder than the other time, and longer.

In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution.

One can rightly speak of an evolution in plastic art. It is of the greatest importance to note this fact, for it reveals the true way of art - the only path along which we can advance.

That's the most important thing for me is just figuring out how and if I'm growing as an artist.

I want to keep - this seems so corny - I want to keep growing as an artist.

What drives me is to still feel creative and like I'm pushing myself as an artist.

So I look at a lot of stuff now that I did and some of it looks tame to me, but my interest in terms of what I want to say with it is a little different.

I felt I really wanted to back off from music completely and just work within the visual arts in some way. I started painting quite passionately at that time.

Some artists are happy doing the same thing again and again, but my favorite artists are the ones who evolve and grow, and I want to be one of them.

I drew as a child, they tell me. I can vaguely remember doing it. And then I drew again in the late years at high school.

As an artist, you keep learning. You draw out different parts of you.

I guess with any type of music or any art, there's always an evolution.

I'm about creating a body of work and moving on to the next thing.

I think - for a period of time, I did think art was there to serve me, but it took me a minute to reset.

An artist conscientiously moves in a direction which for some good reason he takes, putting one work in front of the other with the hope he'll arrive before death overtakes him.

There have been countless changes in the long history of art. The most significant have been brought about by the genius of a single artist.

In art there is no progress, only fluctuations of intensity.

An artist must either give up art or develop.

I go through the arc of a relationship with every single painting that I do.

The idea of going on tour for the rest of my life with old works is not that exciting. As an artist I definitely think the work in future is going to be better than the work in the past, otherwise why do it?

In life we try to grow and better ourselves. As an artist, I feel like I've grown tremendously.

That's what's great about the arts. Everything inspires you, and you get a chance to grow from watching other people and how they do their work.

A lot of times, when a band finds success with a certain style or sound, they have a really hard time breaking away from that to grow as artists.

It's only when an artist becomes a master that they are fully able to express themselves.