Richard Artschwager Quotes

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

For me, the most difficult piece is the one I'm about to make.

If you really want to tell stories, do it and don't be dissuaded.

For years, I was watching other people have so much fun playing out their version of authorship, like Louis C.K. and Larry David. As I watched them do their thing, I began to pine for the days when I had a lot less expected of me and, often, a lot more creative freedom. The courage that those guys have is always captivating to me.

That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.

You can't let regret stifle your creativity.

I've always been making music, but I sort of went under the radar. I kind of disappeared... I was never really that comfortable with the music industry. I loved the idea of being able to express myself creatively - but the rest of it never really sat well with me.

Creating stuff is hard. But, if that terrifies you, you will just be numb, and you better just stay at home and watch TV and do something else. Move into the woods and live with the trees.

Every poet, be his outward lot what it may, finds himself born in the midst of prose; h e has to struggle from the littleness and obstruction of an actual world into the freedom and infinitude of an ideal.

Already the writers are complaining that there is too much freedom. They need some pressure. The worse your daily life, the better your art. If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds.

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.

I'm more relaxed about how the editing process will create a performance and that, in a way, gives me a sense of freedom.

There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. they are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence.

Did not the artists of the great age of Japanese art change names many times during their careers? I like that; they wanted to safeguard their freedom.

Societies never know it, but the war of an artist with his society is a lover's war, and he does, at his best, what lovers do, which is to reveal the beloved to himself and, with that revelation, to make freedom real.

The thing that's so exciting when you're making a film is that it can be anything and there are no limitations on it.

On "Tonight" I think I was torn dreadfully between writing what I wanted to write, but keeping it in a style that would follow up what I had just done. That's where I feel I was untrue to myself as an artist . . . that album and, to a lesser extent, "Never Let Me Down."

The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.

I prefer to write and draw in the privacy of my home and with total freedom and then take it to the lion's den.

You can't be held captive by the fear of failure or the fear of what people may say.

I suppose that anyone who does any kind of creative work some time in their life - especially as you grow into middle age! - you come to a time where you really question more and more frequently, whether you have anything else to offer. And at its worst, you feel utterly bereft of whatever creative force it takes to do that work.

Why did I hesitate to put all this glory of the sun on my canvas?

The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.

I've done quite a few movies, I generally can feel that I'm not right for the role or a general fear if I can pull it off, and him giving that "tag" so to speak gave me the confidence. Like that Miles Davis line, "Don't worry about mistakes, there aren't any." Once you are the part, you're the guy, so you can't not be the guy because you're it.

A lot of people thought I got famous as a studio artist, then decided to cash in on it. But it actually was just a matter of survival for many years, and I felt it was really important for me to be able to say whatever I wanted with my street art and fine art.