Nick Cave Quotes

We do not make art. We have unnamable motors and dangerous impulses that occupy our thoughts.

Not that painting would have been a release. The reason for doing it is the desire to create. I've got to do it! I've seen that, I can still remember it, I've got to paint it.

Art is something you can't teach, but you can inspire it.

My compulsion is to create things.

I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind.

Divine fires do not blaze each day, but an artist functions in their afterglow hoping for their recurrence.

I always wonder what drives us as Artists.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

The best reason to make a film is that you feel passionately about it.

Human requirements are the inspiration for art.

Because fashion essentially is art, and as an artist and someone who is also a musician and an artist in regards to drawing and painting, anything I can do that expresses my feelings is something I'm really drawn to.

Every mind which has given itself to self-expression in art is aware of a directing agency outside its conscious control which it has agreed to label 'inspiration'.

Whether it be personal or musical, I just think I'm a walking art piece, just a ball of creativity.

When I was in high school, I was going to be a painter because I had a facility for painting. I could do it, but I didn't have anything to say in that medium.

Creation is a drug I can't do without.

Art and works of art do not make an artist; sense and enthusiasm and instinct do.

There are two kinds of artists in this world; those that work because the spirit is in them, and they cannot be silent if they would, and those that speak from a conscientious desire to make apparent to others the beauty that has awakened their own admiration.

Everything that is strong in me has gone into my art work.

I'm creative. I can't relax unless I've got some project on the go. I'm somebody from art school, and art school during the punk era, when you just had a go at whatever came along.

My capacity for wanting to create has never faltered. If anything, it's gained momentum.

When I wake up, I can't wait to get to the studio, go into the paint room.

When I get an artistic itch, I have to scratch it.

I have to write. I have to be an artist.

It really has become the singular motivation in my life - to surrender to the art and to the free expression of what I may be experiencing in my life spiritually. It is really hard in the face of people who don't get it, but what do you do?

I think that for every artist, it's very important to have an output and to feel very strongly about the music you're producing.