Keith Haring Quotes

The writer's only responsibility is to his art.

Making reality real is art's responsibility.

Art is no crime. It's every artist's responsibility to make art that is meaningful

I always want to design a frame that’s open to everyone. I don’t see art as a secret code.

Art is for everybody.

I believe art has to take responsibility but it should not give up being art.

Art is not a pastime, it is a duty with respect to the people, a public affair

I don't consider myself an entertainer. I consider myself an artist, and I think with that comes responsibility.

The artists always reflect the times, so there's a lot to think about, a lot of unknowns, a lot of things that are describable. This is the closest I've seen to the kind of ambience that made the '60s happen. It's not about the artist having a responsibility to do anything. They have to be artists and express themselves and everything will work out fine.

If you look at the lives of artists, sitting in nature, painting, having the freedom. I think it's over. I think we're living in such a difficult moment of human development. Artists have more responsibility than ever before.

In retrospect I can see that my desire to create abstractions has become more and more radical. Art should not be delivering a report on reality, but should be looking at what's behind something.

The public has a right to art ... Art is for everybody.

The artist in our time has two chief responsibilities: (1) art; and (2) sedition.

It's the duty of art to ask questions, not to provide answers. And if you want a clearer answer, I'll have to pass.

Art is not an elitist gift for a few select people. Art is for everyone.

Art isn't and shouldn't be responsible. If it is, it isn't functioning as art.

In any society, the artist has a responsibility. His effectiveness is certainly limited and a painter or writer cannot change the world. But they can keep an essential margin of non-conformity alive. Thanks to them the powerful can never affirm that everyone agrees with their acts. That small difference is important.

The idea that musicians/artists have a responsibility to be community leaders or "role models" is problematic to me because I really believe that some of the most exciting art is not community-minded at least in any obvious or direct way, which is not to say that it is not ethical or consciousness-changing.

The responsibility of the artist is to transcend the human ego.

I think the role of artists in the past was very different. Artists had less responsibility in many ways.

I suggest that the great art belongs to all people, all the time--that indeed it is made for the people, by the people, to the people.

Art should live in the heart of the people. Ordinary people should have the same ability to understand art as anybody else. I don't think art is elite or mysterious.

All art is propaganda. ... The only difference is the kind of propaganda. Since art is essential for human life, it can't just belong to the few. Art is the universal language, and it belongs to all mankind. All painters have been propagandists or else they have not been painters. ... Every artist who has been worth anything in art has been such a propagandist. ... Every strong artist has been a propagandist. I want to be a propagandist and I want to be nothing else. ... I want to use my art as a weapon.

I think artists are going to express things from an emotional point of view, that's their job, to suggest and interpret, and report what they witness. That's their job as artists, you're looking for the rub, where's the rub, you're a storyteller, you're looking for the rub, not necessarily the solutions, or you're not necessarily educated, you're not the winner of a debate contest, a national debate contest, you're not necessarily a person who has a doctorate in anything.

I feel I have a responsibility to myself, a responsibility to explain where we're coming from. Because a song or the performance of a song is a lot like a work of art.