Rhys Ifans Quotes

The arts are so important not only to society but to ourselves as human beings. It keeps in touch with our own humanity. So access to the arts in any way, shape, or form is vital.

The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature and help to shape our identity. The arts are not a frill and should not be treated as such.

The importance of the arts to the societies in which they thrive is well documented.

We all must support the arts, as it is our culture. It makes us better people. It makes us happy; it gives us empathy and shows us how to live. It is so important.

The arts are beyond price; they're beyond value. They're of incalculable worth in what it means to be a human being.

Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.

No country is fully civilized which cannot appreciate its artists. They make a contribution not just to the entertainment side of life, but to the educational, economic and spiritual sides.

If you kill the arts, you kill love, and you kill progress.

I think that a society lives or dies according to its respect for - for its art.

I think, in the West, we often discount the arts as nice but not that important. Certainly in America when we cut funding for schools, the arts are the first programs to go. But the arts built the things we need more than anything else: collaboration and co-operation and creativity.

I believe that the arts of a culture are terribly important and yet almost indefensible.

The value of the arts cannot be measured by its ability to preserve life but rather to enhance existence.

The arts are very alive in Ireland, so that had its influence on me. But I consider myself European, really.

Queen Victoria did not regard art, letters, or music as in any way springing from national character: they were something quite apart, elegant decorations resembling a scarf or a bracelet, and in no way expressive of the soul of the country.

Art is to me the glorification of the human spirit, and as such it is the cultural documentation of the time in which it is produced.

We need art more than ever as we stagger toward the Millennium.

What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life.

Well, I think, you know, the arts are really what - one of the things that make this country strong. We always think it's our economy or our military power, but in fact, I think it's our culture, our civilization, our ideas, our creativity.

Do people absolutely need the arts to get by day-to-day? You can make that claim, but they also really need a lot of things before that.

We have to remind people how important arts are. People just don't see it.

I love California. It has such a strong contribution to the history of culture, and popular culture. For better and worse, of course. Even the worst can be interesting to some degree sometimes for somebody creative.

I believe art is utterly important. It is one of the things that could save us.

The claims I'm making for art are simply the claims that we naturally make around music or around poetry. We're much more relaxed around those art forms. We're willing to ask, 'How could this find a place in my heart?'

The arts are what humanize science and history.

You can't argue that you have to have art, and prove it to anybody. Why should I give $1,000 to art when there are people starving? Of course, that's true. But just because you can't, theoretically, defend the arts, or make a sensible argument for their preservation, doesn't mean they're not important.