Iris Murdoch Quotes

As a consumer, I don't create art, but I think whatever the message is, art has to touch you.

A work of art... is not a living thing... that walks or runs. But the making of a life. That which gives you a reaction. To some it is the wonder of man's fingers. To some it is the wonder of the mind. To some it is the wonder of technique. And to some it is how real it is. To some, how transcendent it is. Like the 5th Symphony, it presents itself with a feeling that you know it, if you have heard it once.

Bad art is never really enjoyed in the same sense in which good art is enjoyed. It is only "liked": it never startles, prostrates, and takes captive.

The whole point of art, as far as I’m concerned, is that art doesn’t make any difference. And that’s why it’s important. Take film: you can have quite extreme emotional experiences watching a movie, but they stop as soon as you walk out of the cinema. You can see people being hurt, but even though you feel those things strongly, you know they’re not real.

Great art should be shown with great excitement.

Every artist in the world likes his or her work to make people think.

A painting that doesn't shock isn't worth painting.

When you walk past a painting in a museum, if it doesn't make you feel something, then it's probably a failure.

Any piece of art has the potential to emotionally touch you and nudge you.

The work of art itself is . . . a vibrant, magical, and exemplary object which returns us to the world in some way more open and enriched.

The art of music is good, for the reason, among others, that it produces pleasure; but what proof is it possible to give that pleasure is good? If, then, it is asserted that there is a comprehensive formula, including all things which are in themselves good, and that whatever else is good, is not so as an end, but as a mean, the formula may be accepted or rejected, but is not a subject of what is commonly understood by proof.

I believe all painting and art should be uplifting for the viewer.

I don't know if it's art, but I know I like it.

Great art has dreadful manners. The greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to re-arrange your reality.

All great art ... creates in the beholder not self-satisfacti on but wonder and awe. Its great liberation is to lift us out of ourselves.

Sometimes art is just about getting a reaction, that's really the end-all be-all.

The moment when one first meets a great work of art has an impact that can never again be recaptured.

"The work of art must seize upon you...carry you away."

When, after having read a work, loftier thoughts arise in your mind and noble and heartfelt feelings animate you, do not look for any other rule to judge it by; it is fine and written in a masterly manner.

I know when I watch certain actors or if I watch Thom Yorke sing on stage, I'm affected by it emotionally. I guess that's what we are all striving for in art but that's such a beautiful thing that happens between two people that may never even meet. So when you do get to meet someone who was affected in that way, it's awesome.

A work of art must carry in itself its complete significance and impose it upon the beholder even before he can identify the subject-matter.

Less disappointing than life, great works of art do not begin by giving us all their best.

Art has nothing to do with taste. Art is not there to be tasted

Art is good, bad, boring, ugly, useful to us or not. It does or doesn't disturb optical monotony, and succeeds or fails in surmounting sterility of style or visual stereotype; it creates new beauty or it doesn't.

When people say, 'I don't get art' ... that means art is working.