M.I.A. Quotes

The life of the arts is far from an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose-and is a test of the quality of a nations' civilization.

The arts give us our identity as a community; they also draw new people, fresh visions, and renewable economic opportunity to our community.

The arts are not a luxury. They are an integral part of our lives as individuals and as a nation.

Art is not some inessential frippery - it is the nation's means of intelligently regarding itself. To cripple or stigmatize the arts is to doom one's nation to a life of incuriosity, dullness, literalness and the worst kind of rank materialism.

Art is like ham-it nourishes people.

A nation devoid of art and artists cannot have a full existence.

All these children [who did not have music and art classes at school] go out into the world without knowing that there is anything other than what they have. Of course, children do look at TV, but what does it give them?

Art is when we do work that matters in a creative way, in a way that touches (people) and changes them for the better.

If you consider yourself a part of the culture, then finances can't allow you to be bigger than the actual art form.

If that's art, I'm a Hottentot!

The United States is not looking for a way to launch war.

We have devoted ourselves to the government and extension of the Church, and, among other objects, we have conceived it to be our duty to foster especially literature and the fine arts ... next to knowledge and true worship of the Creator, nothing is better or more useful to mankind than such studies.

Those people that don't see the power in art maybe have never been a part of an art, in a real way. To experience it, and to see and witness how it affects people, we're not doing it just to create professionals. It's to add another dimension to the way that children think and the way they experience certain things. If you didn't have dance, music and singing, it just seems so odd to me.

Art is about trying to find the good in people, and making the world a more compassionate place.

I would really hope this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something you played around with until you got a novel.

Why not spend that time on art: painting, sculpting, charcoal, pastel, oils? Are words or numbers more important than images? Who decides this? Does algebra move you to tears? Can plural possessives express the feelings in your heart? If you don't learn art now, you will never learn to breathe!

The biggest difference would be made if we don't have wars to begin with.

I think great art should play a part in the ordinary man's life, don't you? It can make his existence so much richer and more meaningful.

I consider even a victorious war as an evil, from which statesmanship must endeavor to spare nations.

I know how art has come in and really changed my life, so to give these children that opportunity just to come into contact with art - that's wonderful.

Art is a luxury but also a necessity.

I don't want to fight any wars; if you can get them off before we get there, you do it, but off they go.

It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace.

I think the arts should get big support, but my country has a lot of needs more important than film. Medication, education, food... The poverty is overwhelming. There are simply more important things to be attended to.

Art is the response to the demand for entertainment, for the stimulation of our senses and imagination, and truth enters into it only as it subserves these ends.