Alexander Kluge Quotes

When people start yammering about artistic responsibility, artists become wary. The subtext of such talk is that the arts need to be regulated, which is to say censored.

There's a good many pictures I'd like to make; we'll see how many I'll be allowed to make.

Nowhere in the job description of an artist is the requirement that I must validate your taste.

Young people have realised that an artist is in charge of what they're doing - this crazy cynicism that artists were puppets has disappeared.

I am convinced that in the arts, committees are useless.

I need to find a way of retaining creative control.

I'm not an artist who has an agenda that's set by the work.

Government shouldn't try to dictate what art looks like or what it portrays. Last thing we want is government screwing it up, which is what they would do.

I was literally told for 'The Show Goes On' that I shouldn't rap too deep. I shouldn't be too lyrical. It just needs to be something easy on the eyes. Like a record company telling Picasso that we don't need these abstract interpretations of life, where people have to sit down and look at it and break it down.

The one thing I'm proud of as a filmmaker is that people are entitled not to like my films - that's the privilege of the public - but I think I have my own imprint.

When you give an artist a canvas, you shouldn't tell him exactly how much paint to put on it, or exactly how sharp the images should be. You should let the artist get going.

I mean, I think about it, but I don't design my record to get a certain public response.

There's not a lot of art forms where you can control your presentation and your ideas.

When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art.

One of the worst things that can happen to an artist is to perceive himself as the owner of his art, and art as his tool. A product of the marketplace sensibility, this attitude barely differs on a psychological plane from the patron's view of the artist as a paid employee.

I'm worried a lot of our work day as artists is a producer's creation - not an artist's creation.

The critics are not writers - they're not a part of the creative process; therefore, they should not influence how I go about doing my next bit of work.

Over the years I have always said what I wanted to say through my films. I have ensured that I will not allow anyone to question what I tell through my films.

I just write what I write, produce the music I produce and try to give myself a chance to stay true to the art form. If you try to rein in an art form, it can be hurtful to what you are making.

I grew up at the time of Social Realism in Poland, when everyone was supposed to be 'writing for the workers.' But I soon became allergic to this. I have never written for audiences. I like it if they appreciate my music. But I would never change my style for them.

I don't let the fans rule my world and rule what I do, or how I do it, because as artists we give what we give and you receive how you want to receive.

I like artists to have some freedom.

Some young filmmakers, unfortunately, don't have the ability to resist attempts to maybe cut their films down unfairly.

Nobody wants to make something that displeases people, but once you make a film, that's out of your control and you can't think about that. You just have to follow your head and make sure that you're satisfied by putting down what you intended.

Robert Gober, for example. He doesn't seem like somebody who is just going to show in a gallery that asks him to show. He's just making his work, and when he's ready, he's going to show it.