Kenya Barris Quotes

The task of the artist at any time is uncompromisingly simple to discover what has not yet been done, and to do it.

True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.

Art should be able to be innovative without compromising itself. That's why I believe artists should have bigger preoccupations than checking the price tags on their work or becoming curators' darlings.

Imitation always stinks. When I take photos, I don't go back. I don't look at the past. I'm always original.

What I aspire to do, and what I try the hardest to do, is write stuff that's very personal in its way. I figure I can only say things the way I say them, so I'm trying to do something that is kind of anti-generic.

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

I had a teacher in art school who said something about the only works he really enjoyed seeing or found much in were works where he had a sense that a discovery was made in the course of making this object. I like to hold to that as my marching orders.

Whatever is about you that is translated into your art, that's gonna keep you completly original and fresh and I just think that, that's just the best advice I can give, to an artist creatively.

Even if you try to copy a film shot by shot, you still can't. It's still your own film.

Lucian Freud's career affirms that the only thing an artist can do is remain true to whatever vision, (lack of) talent, or ideas that happened to pick them in order to be made known to the world.

My art springs from my desire to have things in the world which would otherwise never be there.

I do not feel any artist can produce great art without putting great personality into it. It is always a piece of you that goes on the screen or the canvass.

The last thing a young artist should do in poetry or any other field is think about what's in style, what's current, what are the trends. Think instead of what you like to read, what do you admire, what you like to listen to in music. What do you like to look at in architecture? Try to make a poem that has some of those qualities.

It's the duty of all novelists, all painters, all musicians, all people who try to make art move: to look for something they feel authentically, without paying attention to styles.

To be a great artist, you need to know yourself as best as you possibly can. I live my life and delve into my own psyche. It's more about exploring how I feel rather than making pale imitations of something that came before. We are unique beings, and the way we look at things is our own.

I have to believe everything I write is brand new and I'm writing in this way about these people in a completely new situation for the very first time.

It would have been the equivalent of Jackson Pollock's attempts to copy the Sistine Chapel.

You never know what an artist is going to create next.

Every time you work, it's a new film, and generally when you work with auteurs, people that write and direct their films, there's always an originality.

But at a certain point, you have to take your influence and find your own voice if you want to become a relevant artist.

I don't think there's any topic a writer should feel afraid of tackling just because it has already been discussed. If you feel you have a fresh perspective and an understanding of a certain emotional truth, it's always worth writing.

I don't want to sound like an aesthete, but one has to be true to the art. And that means being true to the tradition of the art but also being true to your own artistic vision.

Anybody who goes searching can find enough artistic things I've done that nobody can ever say I sold out.

A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the damned things is ample.

Every time I'm preparing a new production, I'm trying to reinvent my style and offer the audience several choices.