Arthur Erickson Quotes

Good art in general aspires to something, as a good painting aspires to something, almost spiritual or holy.

I don't think I”m a very good actor. Everything is very tentative and at a certain point you click in and just feel the spirit move you. I can be possessed really well.

Architecture struck me between the eye and the eyeball.

Music must take rank as the highest of the fine arts - as the one which, more than any other, ministers to the human spirit.

Art is the objectification of feeling.

All good work has magic in it, and addresses the mind in a subtle way.

Vitality is radiated from exceptional art and architecture.

'Down on Me' can't showcase my true talent. 'Birthday Sex' was robotic. When I perform it, I can't give you this church feeling I know I can give.

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.

Acting is not an intellectual process for me. It comes from my heart. It's this strange netherworld of osmosis where I simply become.

The movie business is not something that can come from the brain. It really comes from the soul and the heart.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

God comes to us in theater in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity.

Poetry is at least an elegance and at most a revelation.

There is a kind of mysticism to writing.

I did feel that a part of my work was to empty myself out and let it move through me.

I was doing an interview with a curator, and he asked me to sum up art in one word. Before he even finished asking the question, I said, 'Impurity.' Because that's it.

Art is truth.

It's really much more than the plastic of album covers and record sales and dollars and cents. Music is just everybody's mother. Music is the power of you.

People have talents that are different. Where does the creative flow come from - inside us or from a higher power? I don't ask any questions. I just write it down.

What matters is what happens in the soul of an artist when you're playing.

I've always had a profound conviction that great music is about joy, even in the face of tragedy.

With Eric Rohmer - as with Mozart, Austen, James, and Proust - we need to remember that art is seldom about life, or not quite about life. Art is about discovery and design and reasoning with chaos.

What shall I say about poetry? What shall I say about those clouds, or about the sky? Look; look at them; look at it! And nothing more. Don't you understand anything about poetry? Leave that to the critics and the professors. For neither you, nor I, nor any poet knows what poetry is.

Music is a strange thing. I would almost say it is a miracle.