Seth Godin Quotes

I am just beginning to understand what it is to paint. A painter should have two lives, one in which to learn, and one in which to practice his art.

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.

I'd rather get back to making art than talk about it.

Over the years I always did some water colors, and I did a series of pictures of drawings. I always did it during a period of time that was slow in the photo business, but in essence it was always frustrating because I'd get started, and then it would be time to get back to work and I wouldn't get anywhere with the painting.

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.

Not content, but the road the artist takes, is the interesting part.

When it comes to art, you just need to be focused on doing a great thing. Not thinking all about the business.

Art is something in which you are never an expert at any point of time. It's something you hone all the time and something which is elusive all the time.

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

An amateur may not be an artist, though an artist should be an amateur.

What still concerns me the most is: am I on the right track, am I making progress, am I making mistakes in art?

An artist conscientiously moves in a direction which for some good reason he takes, putting one work in front of the other with the hope he'll arrive before death overtakes him.

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.

If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement.

There is nothing harder to learn than painting and nothing which most people take less trouble about learning. An art school is a place where about three people work with feverish energy and everybody else idles to a degree that I should have conceived unattainable by human nature.

It's not easy putting creative projects together. In my case, it might take a long time and you try to do the best.

I know how demanding the process of creation is.

I so much appreciate it when anybody tries to make something and tries to be an artist - I'm happy to see the work.

You don't have to be Picasso or Rembrandt to create something. The fun of it, the joy of creating, is way high above anything else to do with the art form.

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.

Every play I do, every book I write, every painting I paint, I will struggle with. I don't know what it's like for a project to come easy.

Generally, I move in the direction of art.

Mournful and yet grand is the destiny of the artist.

Any art worth its name requires you to be fundamentally lost for a very long time.