Never judge a work of art by its defects.
Even the most deft pen is a clumsy tool.
Where there are many beauties in a poem I shall not cavil at a few faults proceeding either from negligence or from the imperfection of our nature.
I believe that perfection handicaps cinema.
There is no book of mine that I reject. That does not mean that I find them good.
The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.
The way to acquire lasting esteem is not by the fewness of a writer's faults, but the greatness of his beauties, and our noblest works are generally most replete with both.
No good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.
I try to avoid purple patches, fine writing, all that kind of thing... because I think they're a mistake. And then sometimes it comes through and sometimes it doesn't, but that's not up to me. It's up to chance.
One of the things that wrong with pictures today, I think, is that so many of the people making them started out wanting to.
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 rather like a certain clumsiness in a work of art.
Madonna did amazing songs. She had an amazing sense of style, without a stylist. And she was flawed, and sometimes she admitted it. I'll fight the fight for Madonna. I think she should send me some chocolates or something to thank me.
Wagner is a composer who has beautiful moments but awful quarter hours.
The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.
In the arts, foolhardiness is always harmful; even worse, however, is clumsiness.
I'm a decent writer, barely a decent guitar player, and a terrible singer.
I, too, am indignant when the worthy Homer nods; yet in a long work it is allowable for sleep to creep over the writer. [Lat., Et idem Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus; Verum opere longo fas est obrepere somnum.]
Mir Bahadur Ali is, as we have seen, incapable of evading the most vulgar of art's temptations: that of being a genius.
Surely when a man is painting a picture he ought not refuse to hear any man's opinion... Since men are able to form a true judgement as to the works of nature, how much more does it behoove us to admit that they are able to judge our faults.
Our best works are shot through with sin and contain something for which we need to be forgiven.
No work of Art is really ever finished. They only stop at good places.
Perfection often creates such a flawless surface that there's no place for the audience to enter into a piece, while the idiosyncrasies of individual style are like windows into the singer's heart.
We have always made mistakes, but the greatest mistakes are the poems we have written.
I think my least favourite thing to listen to is perfect songs, perfect performances. They don't feel human to me, and in that respect, they lose any kind of sincerity. I don't know why. It's just my ears.
