Edward Weston Quotes

The past is part of the present, is part of the future, it's all part of being an artist. You cannot be something that you're not when you're not that thing anymore, and if you do that then you're a liar.

You really can't be a good artist if you can't say what you really feel. And people may be offended, but, you know, that's how you feel, and that is your right, and that is your gift as well.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

All art is a confession.

I do have my own personal convictions and values, and I live by those. But as an artist, as a portrait photographer, my job is to tell the truth and to capture someone's spirit on a certain day. And it's never the whole truth; it's the truth I experience in a very intense and intimate fashion.

If I go into a studio and find my truth of the moment, there are a number of people in the world who can relate to what I'm saying and are going to buy into what I'm doing. Not because it's the new thing of the moment, but because it's genuine emotion. Its how I feel. This is how I articulate the world.

I think that's always the hope - I mean, I can't speak for others, but I think other artists, no matter what type of medium they are using - whether it be from painting to acting to dancing, songwriting, or anything like that - I believe the desire is to get to the truth, and I think it's really hard to tell the truth.

The definition of an artist, for me, is someone who is quite selfish about their creativity.

In general I think that in art you only have the responsibility to tell the truth.

I've got a long list of things I consider to be selling out. But amongst that list, one of them is when you make art without putting your guard down.

Rozay is an artist himself so he understands the importance of being true to your work.

I think as a mature artist, you're probably always trying to undo the compromises of one's self [in general]. It's not necessarily to do with youth.

If nothing will finally survive of life besides what artists report of it, we have no right to report what we know to be lies.

The artist must express the summation of his feeling, knowing and believing through the unity of his life and work.

I always just made music that resonates with me emotionally.

In a sense, I feel like the job of the artist at all times is essentially the same, which is simply to tell the truth. I mean, I'm nervous about any prescriptions for what a writer should or shouldn't do.

There was a period when I just wanted to make what I wanted to make and I didn't care what lie I had to tell.

It does not in the least concern me whether I shall have at the end of my life thirty people who understand or three hundred. I am like an artist who paints a picture because he must, otherwise he is unhappy - not unhappy, but he must obey that creative impulse.

Overall, everyone has been respectful of my boundaries and my morals as a Christian and an artist. Sometimes I'll go to photo shoots, and they'll pull out some stuff that I'm not comfortable wearing, and I just tell them 'no'. I'm very glad God made me a person who's not afraid to say what I think. I can just go, 'No, I'm not going to wear that!'

As an artist I have always tried to be faithful to my vision of life, and I have frequently been in conflict with those who wanted me to paint not what I saw but what they wished me to see.

See, you can't rewrite, 'cause to rewrite is to deceive and lie, and you betray your own thoughts. To rethink the flow and the rhythm, the tumbling out of the words, is a betrayal, and it's a sin, Martin, it's a sin." --Hank (Kerouac)to Martin (Ginsberg) in the film Naked Lunch

All you can do as an artist is do what you think is an extension of you. You put down on paper ... who you are. That's what being an artist is all about. And when it gets done, you don't look back at it and say, Oh, I could have done that better.

The real artist while he paints does not think of the sale, only of the need to make a beautiful living thing.

It is an error common to many artists, who strive merely to avoid mistakes, when all our efforts should be to create positive and important work. Better positive and important with mistakes and failures than perfect mediocrity.

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.