Elliott Smith Quotes

Art for art's sake, and creation for creation's sake, and love for love's sake

Art can be very political but that can't be the purpose of art, it can't be the driving force. It isn't with any of the books that I love, anyway.

Poetry has no goal other than itself; it can have no other, and no poem will be so great, so noble, so truly worthy of the name of poem, than one written uniquely for the pleasure of writing a poem.

I think there is a debate in the arts about, you know, whether we must strive for art for art's sake, and you know, kind of try to keep political debate out of our work. And to that I say, I'd like you to show me an example of, you know, this so-called apolitical art. I don't think there's any such thing.

The artist’s aim is not to instruct the viewer, but to give information, whether the viewer understands the information is incidental to the artist.

For the serious artist does not satisfy needs

The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.

I'm not an industry artist - I'm an artist in the industry.

Art does not exist for politics, or for instruction- it exists primarily for pleasure, or it is nothing.

Art doesn't have to do anything. It just has to be there for the fierce pleasure we take in doing it.

In every human being there is the artist, and whatever his activity, he has an equal chance with any to express the result of his growth and his contact with life. I don't believe any real artist cares whether what he does is 'art' or not. Who, after all, knows what art is?

You cannot create a piece of art merely for money. Doing it as part of commerce so denudes art of wonder that it ceases to be art.

What a terrible world it would be if we only did films that were poster boards for political causes.

The magic question is, 'What for?' But art is not for anything. Art is the ultimate goal.

The poetic image exists apart from causality.

The duty of a lyrical poet is not to express or explain, it is to intensify life.

It would nice to live in a world where art can just be art!

When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.

Where does beauty begin? Where does it end? Where it ends is where the artist begins.

The aim of art is to create space.

Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ... except its own.

(There is) art that states the problems of society and wakes people up to make changes in their lives or in their communities,...art that offers an alternative, that demonstrates human behavior that can become a model for creativity, cooperation, freedom and playfulness, and...art that in itself provides glimpses of a larger consciousness or reflects upon the inexplicable.

The arts teach and moralise by their beauty alone, not by translating a philosophical or social formula. For the truly artistic person, painting has itself as it's purpose, which is quite enough.

The true test of all the arts is not solely whether the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing effect upon the mind.

The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.