Tom Robbins Quotes

The philistine provides the best definition of art. Anything that makes him rage is first class.

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.

Art should never try to be popular.

Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.

Jay-Z is as politically correct as some of the politicians. He's safe. There's points when you're acquiring financing, you make adjustments. He's made those adjustments. It's his choice. For me, it's not a necessity.

We believed that there's no such thing as good art or bad art. Art is art. If it's bad, it's something else. It was a much, much harder line in the '50s and '60s than it is now, because the idea of art education didn't exist - they didn't have a fine arts program when I was a kid.

When looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

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

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.

People are not able to just make music anymore; we have to do things that don't necessarily make the art any better. But that's just how it is.

A lot of the conceptualists and the prestige galleries are debasing themselves in presentations which have little else to them but the presentation.

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

I personally don't distinguish between artistic and commercial films.

Didacticism is the death of art.

‎"But that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed the high art.

And it's possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.

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

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

Art is something that nobody laughs at and nobody makes any money out of is the attitude, which I would dispute.

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

Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is great matter.

The public buys "art" - but the word is drained of its meaning.

Art for art's sake? I should think so, and more so than ever at the present time. It is the one orderly product which our middling race has produced. It is the cry of a thousand sentinels, the echo from a thousand labyrinths, it is the lighthouse which cannot be hidden. It is the best evidence we can have of our dignity.

If the work of art is good enough, it must not be criticized for its theme. I don't think it can be argued.