Milan Kundera Quotes

We take from the art of the past what we need. The variable posthumous reputations of even the greatest artists and the unpredictable revivals of interest in even the most obscure ones tend to reveal more about those who make revisionist assessments than about those who are being reassessed.

What lists and awards don't measure - and I feel this strongly - is the lasting value of any work of art. They're a snapshot of a moment, and one should always consider their judgments in that context.

Once people write criticism about something - and even in 1967 I was far from alone - they're assuming it's art, and art is supposed to last.

Not all films are going to go down in history.

Probably, if we looked at Da Vinci or Michelangelo with care, we'd see a historical particularity that the work is not treated as having. It's certainly true of Shakespeare.

At the time that they were shown, the Brillo Boxes were underappreciated. It's only now, with the patina of history, that we can really see these masterpieces in a clear light.

Critic's delight: scolding the Mighty Dead.

Now, there are so many movies, so many festivals, and so many awards going on, each judged with each other, like your work is worse than others and that's not fair. How can you tell what's best and what's worst from these awards? We're talking about art.

No art that is not in the end understood by the People can live or ever did live a single generation.

Part of my attraction to ancient art is that there is an element of risk, of speculation.

It is our art that has an opportunity to leave a footprint in the sand. They don't wrap fish in our work.

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

Phrases that have historical significance or become headlines don't just magically appear in the moment. They are mindfully planned.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

It's very important to always put things in their historical contexts. It teaches important lessons about the country in question.

There are a lot of bad films out there. There's a lot of bad architecture out there, and I think sometimes it takes a lot of time to begin to see what's really good. And I think what the test seems to be is, what really sticks with you. And what really becomes a part of your life.

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one why it matters to read.

Most ecclesiastical relics are fixed in time at the moment of their manufacture. That is why they are offered for veneration in casings that resemble pocket watches. They have lost their claim to mystery because they are so clearly the products of time.

Great Art is Great because it inspired you greatly. If it didn't, no matter what the critics, the museums and the galleries say, it's not great art for you.

We say arts education is good for general education, but that's not the point. The arts are what great nations are remembered for. They are a mirror.

Contemporary Conservatism ... is like contemporary art, seldom much admired in its time; it only achieves acceptance and admiration in retrospect.

It seems this is an age of clever critics who keep bewailing the fact that there are no works worthy of criticism.

When you make music, and even if it's commercially successful, it doesn't mean that it's going to hold up. It takes time to sort of take stock of what you've done and whether it's got legs and whether it's going to really have a place.

Good art should be polarizing.

Take Tom Sachs as an artist. His brain is more brilliant than anything, so of course, anything he puts out over a ten-year period is going to continue to be super relevant. But if you look at some artists, they have one good idea, but unless you know where it's coming from, it's not going to be lasting.