William F. Buckley Jr. Quotes

Hands are the tool of the painter, the artist.

In the world of reality the more beautiful a work of art, the longer, we may be sure, was the time required to make it, and the greater the number of different minds which assisted in its development.

One paints with one's head, not one's hand.

A picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared.

You are the human clay," Vosch whispers fiercely in my ear. "And I am Michelangelo. I am the master builder, and you will be my masterpiece.

I think it is in collaboration that the nature of art is revealed.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

If what you want to do is make good art, decide what's good and try to imitate it.

The art gods cooked up something special for James Ensor.

How does an artist know when the line that he just painted is good or not good? That's the catch. De Kooning was the greatest of my contemporaries in art, and he knew when he'd done a good line. When he didn't, he threw it away. I wish I'd thrown away some of mine.

To give a body and a perfect form to one's thought, this - and only this - is to be an artist.

To paint well, I need to be enraptured by my subjects.

Art is the collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

The rules are: The only ego is the film, and you have to serve the film.

I think that an artist should be a skilled craftsman.

It's the director's job to piece together my performance, his interpretation of my takes, each take, and string them together and make a statement. I'm red paint on a canvas for a painter.

I think - in general, I don't think I've been involved in a single movie that turned out the way I anticipated it to turn out. Just because, as an actor, there's only so much that I can bring to a project.

There can be no 'graduated exercises in drawing' leading up to an artistic creation. That goal can be attained only through the development of mechanical technique and through the freedom of the spirit.

There's really powerful and potentially dominating forces when you make a film that can harm it if you're incapable of orchestrating things.

As a political artist, I think you have to learn how to create art, no matter what your ideology is.

The fun part about doing our movies is that you're creating something using the talents of people rather than finding these pathetic people who are thrust into these situations. That, to me, is completely artless.

A great painter can paint something really complex, but they can crystallize it into something really simple.

I'm so hands-on and involved in my own music that I feel like if I put the same effort into another artist, then I can definitely cultivate something great.

I don't work for the commercial success of the film. I work to satisfy my producers who give me the money. I work to satisfy the director who has written a script for me. Of course, I have to satisfy the actor in me, but I want to satisfy them first.

I have such deep appreciation for artists who have the ability to create something from within, something completely unique and original to each piece of work.