Susan Sontag Quotes

Art is about the dynamics of the human experience.

You can be sure that a painter reveals himself in his work as much as and more than a writer does in his.

Art cannot, perhaps, impose order on life—but it teaches us to admire even the unruliest of revelations.

Life is earnest, art is gay.

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

I think artists can go to a level of vision that can often save us from a situation which seems to have no solution whatsoever.

Art is right reason in the doing of work.

Therefore we value the poet. All the argument and all the wisdom is not in the encyclopedia, or the treatise on metaphysics, or the Body of Divinity, but in the sonnet or the play.

I get a great laugh from artists who ridicule the critics as parasites and artists manqués — sucha horrible joke. I can’t imagine a more perfect art form, a moreperfect career than criticism. I can’t imagine anything more valuableto do.

But the divinest poem, or the life of a great man, is the severest satire.... The greater the genius, the keener the edge of the satire.

In our time, we have become too interested in the artist and his or her character and experience as a way of understanding art. In my view, you should be able to read a book or see a film without knowing a single thing about conditions or circumstances or character of the artist, and experience the work to the full without such information. Sometimes I feel - speaking for myself - that people know much too much about me, and I wish people knew less and could just read these books and respond to them purely as words on a page.

do what only a true artist can do ... pounce upon the forgotten butterfly of revelation

I believe it is impossible to make sense of life in this world except through art.

Unfortunately most criticism is by poseurs. They use their comments about someone else's work as a platform on which to strike poses. What they're really saying is: "Look at me! Look at me!"

The only thing worse than a silly politician analyzing art is a silly artist analyzing politics

I always feel when you work with an artist and whenever I work with a really good photographer, I try to give him or her their own artistic freedom because that's the way you get the best work or at least the most interesting work.

If there is any reason to single out artists as being more necessary to our lives than any others, it is because they provide us with light that cannot be extinguished. They go into dark rooms and poke at their souls until the contours of our own are familiar to us.

What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes.

[...] I've come to the conclusion that the artist can not justify life or come up with a cogent reason as to why life is meaningful, but the artist can provide you with a cold glass of water on a hot day.

There is a world of communication which is not dependent on words. This is the world in which the artist operates and for him words can be dangerous unless they are examined in the light of the work. The communication is in the work and words are no substitute for this.

The artist uses his reason to discover an answering reason in everything he sees.

Common observation and a plain understanding is the source of all art.

Art is not in the ...eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist.

Living had little use for me other than how it could be funneled into dance.

It has been the office of art to educate the perception of beauty. We are immersed in beauty but our eyes have no clear vision.