Giorgio Vasari Quotes

Artists today think of everything they do as a work of art. It is important to forget about what you are doing - then a work of art may happen.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas.

Any working composer or painter or sculptor will tell you that inspiration comes at the eighth hour of labour rather than as a bolt out of the blue. We have to get our vanities and our preconceptions out of the way and do the work in the time allotted.

So many of my paintings, people would be like, 'What more do you have to do?' But the smallest little things make all of the difference.

I stay in the studio diligently. I'm always trying to create.

Even though there is randomness and improvisation in my music, I want to have some concrete idea that I can hold onto.

The ideas come afterwards, when the picture is finished.

Becoming an artist does not merely mean learning something, acquiring professional techniques and methods. Indeed, as someone has said, in order to write well you have to forget the grammar.

Indeed, an engineer designing a structure is not unlike an artist painting one. Both start with nothing but talent, experience, and inspiration. The fresh piece of paper on the drawing board is as blank as the newly stretched piece of canvas.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I start a picture and I finish it.

I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do.

I'm very interested to see how this new painting will go - I know I want it big and stark, and as I said, I follow the muse, and that's when it always works perfectly for me.

I tend to write and record things quite quickly. You can tamper with things for years, and it's artistic laziness sometimes.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

I am like a folk painter. Paint and move ahead.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

I used to be on the kitchen floor, crying, wasted and thinking of lyrics. That was the only way I could create - as a tortured artist. I've learned that you can be stable and taking care of yourself and still create beautiful work.

Conception, my boy, fundamental brain work, is what makes all the difference in art.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process, I just throw it out.

The songs come along at their own pace when they are ready.

I come in. I'm going to sketch, I'm going to drape, I don't know what I'm going to do.