Richard Avedon Quotes

Art gives a sense of order, life is basically chaotic, and there's a tension between them. A sense of order comes from chaos and contains a bit of it, but it's the sense of order that is important in a work of art.

They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.

Make good art.

Art is the triumph over chaos.

The great thing about this thing we call art is that it has no rules.

So every creative act strives to attain an absolute status; it longs to create a world of beauty to triumph over chaos and convert it to order.

Art is freedom. If you defend art, you defend freedom.

If life were organized, there would be no need for art.

Now I really make the little idea from clay, and I hold it in my hand. I can turn it, look at it from underneath, see it from one view, hold it against the sky, imagine it any size I like, and really be in control almost like God creating something.

Art! What a concept! It saved my life! A place where you can do as you please!

When the individuality of the artist begins to express itself, what the artist gains in the way of liberty he loses in the way of order.

ART is domination. It's making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours.

Art is the set of wings to carry you out of your own entanglement.

Art is about freedom of expression, and should not be molded to fit any propaganda or lofty ideal.

There are some very powerful contributions to knowledge in the scientific world or the legal world, but art is singular. That's why every dictator gets rid of the artists first. They burn the books and execute the artists first. Then they get on with whatever else they're interested in. Art might do something. It's dangerous.

I'm focused on creating art and whichever outlet it can get out in.

A lot of people probably get the idea that I'm this extremely calculated kind of guy, and in a lot of ways, I am. But when it comes to music or artistic expression, I'm very uncalculated and do things very spontaneous. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't want to do this anymore. I can't just play the same thing over and over; it would drive me crazy.

There has always been a tension in my life between the romantic and the practical. I can't hole myself up in a cabin and write down ideas for the rest of my life. I also need to be able to clean out a dog bite.

Art is giving to what you create a soul.

I liked that music was a window into a world with a lot of unpredictability and chaos; it was almost diametrically opposed to my very regimented day-to-day living.

If you have rules, you let creativity sleep.

Self-expression should not be a challenge that demands extraordinary talent but should be a right accessible to all.

That's what I love more than anything, just creating.

I had some great times doing competitions, but I have always been more into making movies because making movies is more about art and expressing yourself in a creative way.

I just see clothing as cloth, and I see it as art, and I see it as a way to express yourself artistically in this world.