Meridel Le Sueur Quotes

Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts.

As a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use.

The art of sculpture is long ago perished to any real effect... it is the game of a rude and youthful people, and not the manly labour of a wise and spiritual nation.

Elvis [Presley] had a stepstool, if you will, to success because he came from the dominant culture. They identified with him. Michael Jackson had to come further and go deeper into the pit of possibility of American democracy and of cultural expression.

I pity people who do not care for Society. They are poorer for the oblation they do not make.

Works of art imitate and provoke other works of art, the process is the source of art itself.

Art is not created in a vacuum. That experience is something to be shared with a group of people, and to be moved in that way.

In the end, it doesn't really matter what you paint. It's all just a routine to connect yourself finally with other people.

The real art is in the street, is making the artwork, and for that you have to involve people. The action is actually the artwork.

Art has to be a kind of confession. I don't mean a true confession in the sense of that dreary magazine. The effort it seems to me, is: if you can examine and face your life, you can discover the terms with which you are connected to other lives, and they can discover them, too - the terms with which they are connected to other people.

A lot of people thought I got famous as a studio artist, then decided to cash in on it. But it actually was just a matter of survival for many years, and I felt it was really important for me to be able to say whatever I wanted with my street art and fine art.

(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 point of art is that it always has the necessity to expand because people are inherently expanding.

Haiku is an art that seems dedicated to making people pay attention to the preciousness and particularity of every moment of existence. I think that poetry can do that.

Development should be a mass movement. We need to integrate the people and make it a mass movement.

There is no progress in art.

A poet must sing for his own people.

At first you're doing it for yourself, it's about what sounds good to you. It's about expressing yourself. Then you get comfortable as an artist and you find yourself and people get familiar.

In reality, however, an artist is a product of art

Works of art are viewed by people. They are heard by people. They are felt by people. They are not just the fodder of a close-knit group of initiates. They are the soul food of all people.

I wish to be of service to the artists of our own day, by showing them how a small beginning leads to the highest elevation, and how from so noble a situation it is possible to fall to utmost ruin, and consequently, how these arts resemble nature as shown in our human bodies.

With each change of definition in art, something considered non-art or bad art by a previous generation is suddenly acceptable.

I think that my responsibility to my art is to try to get it right or to push the boundaries of what I'm able to do in any way.

I would say if you are familiar with our history and the history of our art and literature that you see a clear cut pattern of people wanting to contribute, not only artistically, but in some practical purpose, for the benefits of the community.

I'm inspired by everything, really. I'm inspired by locations and travel, I'm inspired by art and music, I'm inspired by people. When my curiosity peaks and I want to know everything about the subject, I want to know how I can get more deeply involved.