Alan Cohen Quotes

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.

I think at any point, as an artist, whatever the medium - just having an audience means the world.

Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness - great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.

I never had huge amounts of money when I was young. I had huge amounts of fame, and I always had the sense of labor and recompense. I always said I don't want to work for pay, but I want to get paid for my song.

My take on it, like a filmmaker or actor, is if you have much more colors within your creation, eventually people will appreciate what you're doing, and the other stuff is secondary, like critiques or even awards or anything else, as long as people enjoy it.

I don't play for recognition.

I think philanthropy is so much more in keeping with spirit of shouting someone out than a material reward.

Writing about a person whose struggle you wish you could solve is an act of compassion and also, frankly, opportunism.

Acknowledging someone is an act of altruism in the first place, so converting that act of altruism into a pizza party or company fleece jacket or a gift card is fine, but it's not in keeping with spirit in which it all began.

All people are struggling to be creative in some way, and the artist is the one who has succeeded in this task of life.

I do strongly feel that among the greatest pieces of luck for high achievement is ordeal. Certain great artists can make out without it, Titian and others, but mostly you need ordeal. My idea is this: the artist is extremely lucky who is presented with the worst possible ordeal which will not actually kill him. At that point, he's in business: Beethoven's deafness, Goya's deafness, Milton's blindness, that kind of thing.

We're all given a window of opportunity, I think all artists are, of any genre. A window when you're truly relevant, the spotlight's on you and people are watching what you do.

Awards mean nothing to comedians. What matters is the audience, how you're doing - artistically, for the most part - at that moment.

When you have done a good deed that another has had the benefit of, why do you need a third reward-as fools do-praise for having done well or looking for a favor in return.

Poet's food is love and fame.

Don’t make stuff because you want to make money - it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous - because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people - and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.

One good deed dying tongueless Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. Our praises are our wages.

I do know without fear of contradiction what the definition of life is and it is 12 words long. 'Life is defined by how much you improve the lives of others.'

I think what we should concentrate on is what it feels like to be a working artist in the day to day. One doesn't imagine what comes down the line.

There is surely no more unselfish person than the anthologist. For while all we others are striving to ensure our own immortality with eagerness, beguilements, buffooneries, loud voices, 'the sound of battle and garments rolled in blood,' the anthologist is quietly ensuring the immortality of somebody else.

During freedom struggle, It were authors and artists who made the Nation stand with their pen, and now their pen can create an environment of renaissance when Independent India is on the path of Good Governance.

As struggles go, being an artist isn't that much of one.

I love creating. I am addicted to the drug of creation and creating things. I get a little depressed when I am struggling to find what I know is locked inside. If it's a lyric or something that is challenging me, I can be very depressed, but when it's like heaven opens up and it gives you a song, it's amazing. There's nothing else that I enjoy more probably.

The artist must be ecstatic about something.

I suppose, because I am a sportsman and travel all over Australia, I see every day Australians doing small and large and often unnoticed deeds; many times I thought how nice it would be for them to be recognised, so I hope somehow that in receiving this honour that I represent these people.