Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

If I was just to shut up, I wouldn't be a true artist.

The worst state of affairs is when science begins to concern itself with art.

Art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.

As soon as any art is pursued with a view of money, then farewell, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, all hope of genuine good work.

It is hard to separate the art from the artist.

I don't think we should be deceived that art is such a moral thing.

Didacticism is the death of art.

The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that art, as such, does not "pay," to use an American expression - at least, not in the beginning - and that the art that has to pay its own way is apt to become vitiated and cheap.

There's no art where there's no fee.

Art should never try to be popular.

Art cannot be subordinate to its subject, otherwise it is not art but biography.

There is only one Art, whose sole criterion is the power, the authenticity, the revelatory insight, the courage and suggestiveness with which it seeks its truth. ... Thus, from the standpoint of the work and its worth it is irrelevant to which political ideas the artist as a citizen claims allegiance, which ideas he would like to serve with his work or whether he holds any such ideas at all.

Art is arbitrary but it sort of reveals itself to be right or wrong anyway.

It's not that everything needs to have substance, but when nothing does then you know we're living in a bankrupt society, an artistically bankrupt society, and that's not okay. I think there's room for forms of entertainment that are very light and frivolous and fun, but when those forms of entertainment, forms of "art" if you will, become presented as something more than that, and are believed to be something more than that, then we've got a lot of problems.

I'm very political. Because I read politics every day, so I'm familiar with the world. I approach the films is I'm trying to write what is true, so that supersedes partisan spin, in my opinion. I find partisanship is a thing for cable news and newspaper articles, but it's not interesting for art. I think we all believe what we believe, and I don't think a film is going to change someone's mind.

Only dull and impotent artists screen their work with sincerity. In art there is need for truth, not sincerity.

grievance does not make for great art.

Nothing has a more sinister effect on art than the artist's desire to prove that he's good. The terrible temptation of idealism!

Art can be very political but that can't be the purpose of art, it can't be the driving force. It isn't with any of the books that I love, anyway.

The true artists is one who insists on producing a supply, whether or not there's any demand.

When we accept bad art because it's good politics, we're killing the swan to feed the chickens.

Don't be dismayed by the opinions of editors, or critics. They are only the traffic cops of the arts.

God does not ask for 'religious' art or 'Catholic' art. The art he wants for himself is Art, with all its teeth

To be sure, a good work of art can and will have moral consequences, but to demand of the artists moral intentions, means ruiningtheir craft.