Artist's Role Quotes

I think it's the job of the artist to reflect the times and also reflect his or her views of the world.

I play for the audience's pleasure. What I expect from them is not important; it's what they expect from me.

An artist should be taking risks. That's the whole idea of being an artist.

What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.

I think it's our responsibility as artists to not only fight for our art but fight for the communities that are the reason we're able to continue making art, especially since, in Brooklyn's case, we as artists somehow made it 'cool' enough for the bigger money-making industries to start taking over.

Paul Robeson once said that the artist has the responsibility to either help liberate the community or further oppress it. And I think that when Eldridge Cleaver wrote it down it was interpreted as his, but there's a history of people saying things of that nature and meaning it. And what I do is in that tradition, in that mode.

I think the obligation of an artist is to make a difference in the world. That is what matters most to me. I think that artists are the leaders of the world because they do not have a connection to the industrial complex, the day-to-day short-term survival that most people are involved with.

Creating is one thing; telling the story is one thing. I see myself more as a storyteller than a story creator.

I think it's important that artists use their voices for so much more than just their talent.

A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven.

How should an artist begin to do his work as an artist? I would insist that he begin his work as an artist by setting out to make a work of art.

The same applies to any artist; we are the tools and instruments of our talent. We are outsiders; we have no place in society because society is what we’re watching, and dealing with.

When one is an artist, what else can he be?

Artists have to be useful. They have to fill a role.

Computers don't create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.

You stand your ground and you perform your art. That's what the artist does. The artist is about perfection.

I feel a lot of guilt about the freedom that being an artist provides. I ask myself, 'Why am I not the guy emptying the trash, why am I the guy who is watching the guy empty the trash?'

I feel it's my job as the artist who is making the music to pair it with visuals that I see in my head while writing the music in the first place.

There are a lot of great artists with great voices who aren't singing what they should be singing.

Artists also have the responsibility of reflecting the truth.

It's an artist's job to always have their antennas up.

The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.

The earth doesn’t care where death occurs. ...It’s the artist, by coming in and writing about it or painting it or taking a photograph of it, that makes the earth powerful and creates death’s memory. Because the land will not remember by itself, but the artist will.

I'm no intellect. I'm no preacher. I'm an entertainer. And If I don't get up there and entertain people, I'm not giving them what they paid for.

An artist's job is simply to take the mirror in front of your face and hold it there. It's not to give you any answers. It is simply to take that mirror and point it at you.