Artistic Finesse Quotes

[N]othing about a book is so unmistakable and so irreplaceable as the stamp of the cultured mind. I don't care what the story is about or what may be the momentary craze for books that appear to have been hammered out by the village blacksmith in a state of intoxication; the minute you get the easy touch of the real craftsman with centuries of civilisation behind him, you get literature.

An artist of understanding and experience can show more of his great power and art in small things roughly and rudely done, than many another in a great work. A man may often draw something with his pen on a half sheet of paper in one day . . . . and it shall be fuller of art and better than another's great work whereon he hath spent a whole year's careful labor.

In love as in art, good technique helps.

Excellence in art is largely the result of attention to minutiae, and--prayer.

Art lies in concealing art.

All art is but dirtying the paper delicately.

I dislike a picture that is too suave or too skilfully done. But, contrariwise, I also dislike a picture that looks too inept or blundering.

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

And the part about being a professional artist is that you can tell, and you can do it over again, even if you can't say how you got there exactly.

The essence of a sculpture must enter on tip-toe, as light as animal footprints on snow.

In the arts, foolhardiness is always harmful; even worse, however, is clumsiness.

As I'm writing, I start to see connections, and themes I didn't see, and that sparks other things. So then I go back and rewrite things or alter them. It's a combination of intuition and a lot of finessing. It becomes a combination of the rational and the irrational.

Maggie Shipstead's prose is so graceful and muscular, so dazzling, so sure-handed and fearless, that at times I had to remind myself to breathe. Astonish Me is a treasure of small surprises.

Everywhere there is craft and technique; everywhere there is artistry and form. Art itself, technique, is ponderous and clumsy, and because of its awkwardness it obstructs that inner element.

Some specialist guitar music is not of the highest intellectual calibre, so I must make it sound as though it is. If it bores me, it certainly won't please an audience.

There is a subtle and unmistakable touch of love and pride, beyond mere skill, almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art - which is art.

While adding the finishing touches to a painting might appear insignificant, it is much harder to do than one might suppose.

In the arts of peace Man is a bungler.

Sadistic excess attempts to reach roughly and by harshness what art reaches by fineness.

On the elusive gift of blending austerity of craft with elasticity of allure.

Some actors just have a quality, a way of combining music and character and story, where everything just falls into place.

A photographer is part pick-pocket and part tightrope dancer.