Esa-Pekka Salonen Quotes

I liked drawing and painting, because the only failure would be to listen to the doubters who wanted me to stop drawing and painting because 'you aren't going to make a living doing that.' I liked looking in art books at the work of painters.

I went to art school for four years to learn a very expensive lesson - that there are many other artists who are way better than me.

Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.

There is nothing new in art except talent.

There's something fascinating about watching artists draw.

I wish I was better at art. I love some of the great artists of the 19th century and, compared to them, I just feel I lack this technique that they had. They have so much skill.

The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.

I remember when you used to have your profession on your passport and I always thought that being a painter was the best one to be, because my heroes were Goya and Francis Bacon.

Very few people possess true artistic ability. It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort. If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

Picasso is still influencing me. Of course, I haven't got that kind of energy, or skill.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

Well, one always has an instinct to be a painter, and I've done quite a lot of painting at one time or another, though not with any public success.

I wanted to be a painter.

No, I didn't become disenchanted. I just couldn't paint like them.

When a great artist gets my attention, I pursue it. If I don't, someone else will, you know what I'm saying?

Is an artist much more than a beggar?

I think anyone who has, you know, is in any sort of artistic pursuit, kind of goes up and down with the way they feel about their work. And I, for the most part, am pretty happy person. But, yeah. I go through definite periods of time where I'm not funny. I'm not good. I'm - I don't feel original.

Preserve my artistic creativity and ennoble my artistic fame.

Artists were always referred to as great artists. I thought that's what the profession was. One word: great-artist. There wasn't one moment in my life when I thought I wanted to be anything else.

I would have liked to be - indeed, I should have been - a second Rembrandt.

I would have loved to have been a painter or a sculptor. I'm still fascinated by those things.

To be taken seriously about doing something creative and probably travel a lot. That was my motivation. I knew I was good, I knew I could write. I also knew you could get laid really easily.

It's easier and sociabler to talk technique than it is to make art.

I went to Performing Arts because that was the only school that would accept me. My scholastic level was not very high.