T. C. Boyle Quotes

I want art to make me think. In order to do that, it may piss me off, or make me uncomfortable. That promotes awareness and change, or at least some discussion.

Art is a tool by which society extends its perception.

If I'm not moved from one spot to another, internally, while I'm witnessing it, reading it, consuming it, whatever, I don't know why we're being asked to the party.

What's the point of art, of any art, if it doesn't let us see with a little bit of objectivity where we are?

Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb, in a constant search for truth.

That's the real power of art, I think. Not to chide but to provoke challenge. Otherwise why bother?

Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.

If art doesn't move people, then art has failed.

The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people.

I think film should raise questions, not give answers. I think film should challenge people to reflect, debate and get by themselves to the answer that fits them.

The message of great art is to disturb.

That's what you want art to do, to open people up and start conversations.

Art is meant to disturb.

I think that's always the goal of art, is to make people ask themselves questions.

There's a difference between art and entertainment. Entertainment is really about forgetting about your life, and art is about remembering your life.

I come from a Punjab and a community that has taught me that art is meant to be challenging, infuriating and thought provoking.

Art is supposed to hold up a mirror to its audience and ask, 'What do you believe? What do you think? What do you feel?' and if you look at a painting and it makes you feel nothing, that's a feeling as well.

I really don't think we should dismiss a book because we feel messed about intellectually. Or emotionally. That's the writer's job!

Art has always been this--pure interrogation, rhetorical question less the rhetoric--whatever else it may have been obliged by social reality to appear.

Art is supposed to spark conversation and make people think.

Entertainment provides relief. Art provokes engagement.

The pictures which do not represent an intense interest cannot expect to create an intense interest.

I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get people to think. I mean if you can get a whole room full of drunk, stoned people to actually wake up and think, you're doing something.

The job of any artiste is to open the eyes of the public to their surroundings and make them aware of it.

I'd rather create something that gives people a very strong reaction than create a show that someone looks at and says, 'Hmm. Fine.'