Harold Rosenberg Quotes

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

One thing that is exciting about fashion is the surprise element. People don't know what they want. They just know when they see it.

Words are the basic tools, if you are a writer. But why? Why do you choose one set of tools rather than another?

The great thing about fashion is that it always looks forward.

I think of myself more as a sportsman than I do an artist.

Don't you know that every perfect life would mean the end of art?

I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.

A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.

when one is not expressing himself, he is not free. thus, he begins to struggle and the struggle breeds methodical routine. Soon, he is doing his methodical routine as response rather than responding to what is.

It's hard to be an artist. It's hard to be anything. It's hard to be.

Imagination is a gift given to us from God and each one of us use it differently.

My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall.

We are living in a world where the individual must learn to command the raw materials of expression. He must not be dependent all the time on the ready-made, the finished product. It's the transferring, the changing of the raw into what is the expression of your own self – the whole joy and satisfaction and frustration of life is built into this.

Draw a line; draw a line that pleases you. And remember that it is not the artist's role to copy the outlines of things but to create a world of his own lines on paper." (pp.28-29)

I don't think it is possible to give tips for finding one's voice; it's one of those things for which there aren't really any tricks or shortcuts, or even any advice that necessarily translates from writer to writer. All I can tell you is to write as much as possible.

If a man ain't nothin' else, then he's an artist. It's the only thing he can claim to be that nobody can prove he ain't.

Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.

What you have felt and thought will by itself invent a new style, so that when people talk about style they are always a little astonished at the newness of it, because they think that it is only style that they are talking about, when what they are talking about is the attempt to express a new idea with such force that it will have the originality of the thought.It is an awfully lonesome business, and, as you know, I never wanted you to go into it, but if you are going into it at all, I want you to go into it knowing the sort of things that took me years to learn.

I have expressed some ideas that point to the center; I have saluted the dawn in my way, from my point of view. He who knows the way should do the same, in his way, and from his point of view.

How wonderful it feels to be an artist and a woman in the twentieth century.

The things keeping you back-these embarrassing, boring, stupid obstacles-are the heart of what it is to be human. They’re the whole reason for making and needing art. So you might as well go ahead and begin in whatever way you can right now.

Your best work is your expression of yourself. Now, you may not be the greatest at it, but when you do it, you're the only expert.

Art is really a battle.

A game played with serious problems. That's what art is.

Fashion has a right to exist, because it permits the people to define themselves over and over again.