Gilbert K. Chesterton Quotes

For the essential thing about the work of art is that it is work, and very hard work too.

Painting is like having a bad mistress who spends and spends and it's never enough ... I tell myself that even if a tolerable study comes out of it from time to time, it would have been cheaper to buy it from somebody else.

The only sensible way to regard the art life is that it is a privilege you are willing to pay for... You may cite honors and attentions and even money paid, but I would have you note that these were paid a long time after the creator had gone through his struggles.

Only 10 percent of people who go to art school will still be making art in 10 years. To some extent, you have to want to do it. It's hard. It is something you really have to stick with for it to work.

Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on.

When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the path is neither short not easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the effort. If it's not, dream bigger.

The person who practices an art is an artist, not a samurai, and one should have the intention of being called a samurai.

I was always an artist. I was a broker to earn a living, but I was always thinking about my art.

Art is unthinkable without risk and spiritual self-sacrifice.

What distinguishes the artist from the dilettante? Only the pain the artist feels. The dilettante looks only for pleasure in art.

I put all of my time into art because I couldn't go back to Jersey and work at Starbucks.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.

Is an artist much more than a beggar?

But where there is no art show, I would still be painting.

All of those art-based fields are similar in that they're all hard to make a living in and they all require an intense amount of training and discipline.

Our wishes are our most reliable mirror, and the black-and-white movies I'm most drawn to are about artists who suffer because art is a noble thing; suffering is such a small price to pay for the imagination.

People want to be artists but don't want to do the ground work.

I went to school for fine art. I'm a decent housepainter, but I'm a really good fine art painter.

You just have to work really hard and throw everything into it. ... It's really hard to be an artist, and even if you do work really hard, there's no guarantee about anything. There's no advice you can give someone that things will somehow work out, but you can talk to people about how they can make art a big part of their life.

The poet who does not revere his art, and believe in its sovereignty, is not born to wear the purple.

When everything is added up, the frequent blows weighted against the sporadic triumphs, this is I have to say not just a vocation, it's a great gift. But you also know this, for your work, for your passion, every day is a rededication. Painters, dancers, actors, writers, filmmakers. It's the same for all of you, all of us. Every step is a first step. Every brush stroke is a test. Every scene is a lesson. Every shot is a school. So, let the learning continue.

It's always nice to have people love the things that you do. But it's a lot of hard work, and people are always passionate, if it's family fare or a drama, it's the same amount of work and people invest everything into that, and when it doesn't come out the way you want it to, of course it's hurtful.

You can’t teach art, so ART SCHOOL is a contradiction in terms.