Claire Messud Quotes

I make pictures and someone comes in and calls it art.

I'm an artist at heart.

I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an artist is somebody who, if you took away their freedom to make art, would lose their mind.

Artists are controlled by the life that beats in them, like the ocean beats on the shore.

The artist is not the transcriber of the world, he is its rival.

Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)

The artist’s memory is a dangerous, necessary thing. Never disavow what you see and remember-it’s your brilliant stock-in-trade: remembering, and making something out of it. Artists remember the world as it is, first, because you have to know what it is you’re reinventing; that’s a rule, perhaps the only one: being cognizant of your source material.

My definition of an artist is anyone who's ahead of his time and behind on his rent.

Artists are fiery; they do not weep.

Being an artist is a totally godlike thing to do - and I have a god complex.

It would be a terrible world if everyone was an artist. Nothing would get done!

Artists are mostly shits of the worst order. You wouldn't want one living next door to you. Think about it: Vincent Van Gogh living next door, coming over to borrow your ear and a cup of sugar every morning-Good God!

Artists are the people for whom the world is not enough.

Most of the artists I know are crazy in one way or another. I think that's why you get into it. You're in pursuit of a certain sort of peace that's very, very, very difficult to come by.

And every good artist knows that the gift comes from somewhere else, and it's there for a reason, and that's to make the world a better place.

There's just some dysfunctionalism with artists. There are good things and bad things about being an artist, and the good thing is, sometimes you get an inside line on what's really happening. You develop these strange antennae that clue you in to what's really going on.

All artists are of necessity in some measure contemplative.

Modern conquerors can kill, but do not seem to be able to create. Artists know how to create but cannot really kill. Murderers are only very exceptionally found among artists.

An artist is only an ordinary man with a greater potentiality--same stuff, same make up, only more force. And the strong driving force usually finds his weak spot, and he goes cranked, or goes under.

If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because happiness does not interest them.

I was given the gifts of the artist, and the trouble that goes with them: So I have that blessing, and there was never a time thatI questioned it or doubted it.... For forty years, I wanted to jump out of windows.

I hadn't really thought about the kind of music I wanted to make. I was just making raps and stuff. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

We must grant the artist his subject, his idea, his donn´e: our criticism is applied only to what he makes of it.

Artists are the antennae of the race.

Artists are the worst [people]. They are selfish, self-centred; they don't care what happens.