Henri Cartier-Bresson Quotes

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

The creative act amazes me. Whether it's poetry, whether it's music, it's an amazing process, and it has something to do with bringing forth the old out into the world to create and to bring forth that which will rejuvenate.

It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.

Indeed, an engineer designing a structure is not unlike an artist painting one. Both start with nothing but talent, experience, and inspiration. The fresh piece of paper on the drawing board is as blank as the newly stretched piece of canvas.

I start a picture and I finish it.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

My painting does not come from the easel.

I am like a folk painter. Paint and move ahead.

The drawing is already partly there - it's in the paper. And the paper is talking before you do.

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.

An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.

The artist is the medium between his fantasies and the rest of the world.

In my experience a painting is not made with colors and paint at all. I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint?

I can concentrate on my art.

No matter how fast I could do it with the digital camera I don't think I would get the same thing out of it. The passion I have for formulating an idea stands alone. It is the important essence of what I do.

To me, that is the essence of me as a photographer. It is those ideas, working with them, formulating them and eventually putting them down on paper, photographing them and then going on to the next step.

I'm inspired by art - in whatever form it takes. I love when I see a painting or a photograph that captures my attention.

When you're not hearing my voice, I'm working on art. So if you're not hearing me, I'm working for the people and getting inspired.

Being an artist, you soak up imagery, and you put it back out in whatever form you do your own imagery.

You know a trillion times more about art than me. But I’ve learned that it isn’t necessary to know all that much. You just make what you wanna see, right? It’s a game, right? It’s like being paid for dreaming.

To be an artist, you have to nurture the things that most people discard.

I personally just love movies about the creative process.

I paint what cannot be photographed, something from the imagination... I photograph the things I don't want to paint, things that are already in existence.

I'm not a politician or a scholar or political historian. I'm just a photographer who's trying to capture a spirit. It's not an intellectual process; it's an intuitive process.