Kehinde Wiley Quotes

I like people that challenge their art, not only in the purist way, but also in terms of how they could provoke and make something different.

I think I come from a time when all the artists I grew up with and I loved always used to try and push the boundaries, and there doesn't seem so much of that, really.

The only way I'm comfortable with a new album is if I'm taking a new risk.

The real risks for any artist are taken in pushing the work to the limits of what is possible, in the attempt to increase the sum of what it is possible to think. Books become good when they go to this edge and risk falling over it -when they endanger the artist by reason of what he has, or has not, artistically dared.

I guess I'm part of the art house, but we really have to shake up our ideas, because we're kind of self-parodying ourselves. We go places commercial cinema doesn't go, but sometimes it's to our own detriment.

I do think that we all draw limits and I feel like part of the work of an artist is it shouldn't be fun. This shouldn't be comfortable. I'm not looking to make people feel unsafe, but I am looking to make people feel uncomfortable.

Every artist is unreasonable, because he or she is doing something that hasn't been done before.

Some of those songs, you really have to bite them. You challenge yourself, you challenge the audience, you do something different. People weren't expecting it.

The artists I look up to are the ones who push their own limits.

To be a truly conscientious artist, you have to look at what's not working and challenge it. You riff on things.

In subsidized theater, you are encouraged to take risks. It's about being imaginative and artistic. That's the priority. It might not be a success, but let's try.

Californian artists are kind of willing to push the limits a little bit further just because that's kind of our mentality in that state.

We live in a world where art is always looked upon as the perfect medium. We live in a society where we can alter our body parts, we can act in the most perfect or right way. A lot of that is dangerous because, especially in the world of art, the chief enemy of creativity is being safe. If you're safe, you can't fall and hurt yourself. The older you are, the further down the crash is going to be. But if it works out, the higher the high.

I think nearly every artist continually wants to reach the edge of nothingness - the point where you can’t go any further.

Yes, every venture is always filled with apprehensions. But if we were to conduct ourselves continuously on that aspect, then we would lose the most important reason to be in this profession: to challenge the art of and be part of what is commonly known as our creative instincts.

I've never really had the opportunity to play something that's a complete departure from me yet.

The way James Franco goes to new projects, he does it the way an artist should, which is with a question mark. Like, will this work?

There are times when what you do will be mysterious to everyone... times when you have to change directions before people are ready. Just because someone does something that critics don't like or understand doesn't mean you're failing as a musician. It probably means you're growing.

Some actors want to keep riding the horse that made them famous, but it's not interesting to me. I like to turn an archetype on its head.

I think if you don't risk something in art, it's not really important.

Just finding ways to be not provocative for provocative's sake, but to show an idea that hasn't been shown before, I mean that's interesting to me.

I like to create provocative imagery. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it goes awry.

My goal is to try to avoid a genre.

I think it's very dangerous as an artist to be comfortable.

If people respect us as artists, they know we'll give them something different every time; they know we're pushing ourselves.