Maurice Denis Quotes

Every artist paints his Madonna according to his own pre-conceived ideas.

In art, as long as you have ideas and think, you are bound to deform nature. Art is deformation.

Most art in the world does not have a capital 'A,' but is a way of turning everyday objects into personal expressions.

The idea of content in art is today merely a hindrance, a nuisance, a subtle or not so subtle philistinism.

All art is a form of artifice.For in art there can be no prejudices.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

In all the great periods of the drama perfect freedom of choice and subject, perfect freedom of individual treatment, and an audience eager to give itself to sympathetic listening, even if instruction be involved, have brought the great results.

I can paint in jail.

Art is the most beautiful of all lies.

Music is an expression of individuality; it's how you see the world. All art is, for that matter. You take how you experience the world, interpret it, and send it out there - express it - whether it's sculpture, dance or singing.

There's no wrong way of doing art. It's an expression of the individual.

My art, like my acting, is a profound expression of poetic license.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

Why I talk so seriously about art is that art is the only thing that helps people stay alive, and it is the only thing that has allowed people to create joy in this insane, suppressive universe. And art is the only thing that they can't get rid of. They've tried, but ultimately they can't stamp it out.

Musicians are also interpretive artists and we are just as creative as painters and writers. We interpret in a way that expresses ourselves.

In art, you CAN crash your plane and walk away from it

But art not only exploits the variety of appearances, it also affirms the validity of individual outlook and thereby admits a further dimension of variety. Since the shapes of art do not primarily bear witness to the objective nature of the things for which they stand, they can reflect individual interpretation and invention.

Science explains the world, but only Art can reconcile us to it.

The delight we find in art amounts to recognition of a saving grace, to an acknowledgment that the problem of life has a solution implicit in its own nature, though not yet formulated by the intellect.

If life were organized, there would be no need for art.

But it's hard to talk about art. Maybe there should be a law against it, some First Amendment gag order like crying fire in a crowded theater.

Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement. If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.

It isn't enough to have had an interesting or hilarious or tragic life. Art isn't anecdote. It's the consciousness we bring to bear on our lives. For what happened in the story to transcend the limits of the personal, it must be driven by the engine of what the story means.

A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.

In art one idea is as good as another.