Pauline Kael Quotes

Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.

Joy is a part of my process. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that poetry, as a practice, necessitates a sense of joy. It's exhilarating to come into contact with the things we write into being. And a real sense of play and abandon – even when we are relying on hard-won technique, and even when the aim is deadly serious. How often do we get the excuse to stop, think, and then stop thinking altogether and try to listen to what sits behind our outside of our thoughts? Poets are lucky.

Poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge.

Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.

The world of the arts is by no means always comfortable, but neither is it likely ever to be boring. It is full of surprises, humor, traps for the unwary, and challenges to smugness. It is a world of moods as well as of revelation, of beliefs and fears, of unpleasant truth as well as of delicious fantasy. Perhaps it is arrogant to say that anyone who does not venture into this world is only half-interested in life. I say it, nonetheless.

The creative act amazes me. Whether it's poetry, whether it's music, it's an amazing process, and it has something to do with bringing forth the old out into the world to create and to bring forth that which will rejuvenate.

Art is an investigation.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.

I don't think I could not have been with an artist of some kind, someone creative.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

I like to stay artistic. So I always like to draw or write.

Wonder and awe are the diet of the artist and without them the world would be far less meaningful to us than it is.

As an artist, you find at different times you want to do different things.

While drawing, I discover what I really want to say.

A writer is an artist. They're creating things out of thin air.

I know how difficult it is to make a career in the arts, but even if you don't make a career of it, don't lose it as a hobby. Artists often end up in jobs that have nothing to do with their art. But that side needs to be fulfilled - don't give it up.

That's what art is. You don't make up stories. You live your life.

Tout ce qu'on invente est vrai, soi-en sure. La poesie est une chose aussi precise que la geometrie.

All the things an artist must be: poet, explorer of nature, philosopher!

I haven't the slightest idea what art is, but to be a painter is something of which you have to prove.

Here, where we reach the sphere of mathematics, we are among processes which seem to some the most inhuman of all human activities and the most remote from poetry. Yet it is here that the artist has the fullest scope of his imagination.

I would advise puppeteering for any artist. It's a way to break down pretensions. It's a sculpture that can talk. It's a painting that can talk. And it's pure play. I think every artist needs to stay in touch with the idea of playing. The artist should always be playing, always. All art is performance.

Without artists, the order which we find in nature, and which is only an effect of art, would at once vanish.