Norman Cousins Quotes

If an artist may say nothing except what he has invented by his own sole efforts, it stands to reason he will be poor in ideas. If he could take what he wants wherever he could find it, as Euripides and Dante and Michelangelo and Shakespeare and Bach were free, his larder would always be full, and his cookery might be worth tasting.

An artist must have imagination. An artist who does not use his imagination is a mechanic.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature.

The real artist's work is a surprise to himself.

An artist must be very careful not to look for models. As soon as one artist takes another as model, he is lost. There is no other point of departure than reality.

An artist must find his expression closely linked to his individual experience or else follow in the old grooves resulting in lifeless forms.

A painting is above all a product of the artist's imagination, it must never be a copy. If, at a later stage, he wants to add two or three touches from nature, of course it doesn't spoil anything.

Artists aren't looking for you to write them something; they're looking for you to give them something new.

Art is not communicative, art is not reflexive. Art, science, philosophy are neither contemplative, neither reflexive, nor communicative. They are creative, that's all.

It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes.

The great artist takes what he needs.

When I stand before a canvas, I never know what I'll do, and I am the first one surprised at what comes out.

A man becomes creative, whether he is an artist or scientist, when he finds a new unity in the variety of nature. He does so by finding a likeness between things which were not thought alike before.

I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

As a creative person, you want to start with a blank canvas.

I love to be creative.

If you're always thinking about someone else's work, about the tradition you're working in, how can you possibly make anything good?

Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.

I believe in creative work.

You never know what an artist is going to create next.

I love to get to that place where I don't know what kind of music I'm doing; I don't know if it's any good. I don't know if it's anything. It's a big question mark. The idea is to have interesting results. That's my bottom line.

The creative processes are so mysterious.

I'm a creator at heart.

My films are so new and unique that I don't know where I will end up. Fear keeps me alert. And it's also a part of an excitement.