Quotes About Expression

What the artist must aim at above all else is this: to produce, by any process whatever, a work which by the life and humanity emanating from it communicates to the beholder . . . .

I sometimes think it's like a weird elastic band. The more tragic your work is, the quicker you snap back. There's a catharsis in telling a miserable old tale; you get rid of demons.

I made myself into an envelope into which I could thrust my work deep, lick the flap, seal it from everybody.

The work of art is an ostentatiously improbable occurrence.

As an artist, as an actor, as a writer, you have to use what's personal to you. You have to be personal about your work; otherwise, it doesn't ring true.

One of the major things I really want to work on now is female rage because that's not dealt with at all - and I have a lot of it.

I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.

It makes no difference whether a work is naturalistic or abstract; every visual expression follows the same fundamental laws

When you work with great musicians, they are always a part of you . . . their spirits are walking around in me, so they're still here and passing it on to others.

I don't think competition is good in music. What is good, is the desire and the ambition to create your best work.

The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.

The main thing that excites me and makes me want to get out of bed is the thought of being able to go into my studio to work on music.

In real life, you just work for the ordinary self, but in the front of audience you become the superself. That's a completely different thing.

Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work.

So there is a personal sense of style for a given work - I don't like a general style, but every work has its own style, and I want to create a style for every work.

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.

My opinion is that the best thing would be to work on till art lovers feel drawn toward it of their own accord, instead of having to praise or to explain it.

I write in my sleep. I don't know how, but I'll work on a song, go to sleep and it's finished when I wake up.

I believe I'm doing the right thing in trying to step away from that and to take chances and work on little independent films and do stuff like that wild dance scene.

I thought I should work more on the idea that you wear a suit or a jacket because of the fun it can provide, because it's a game, because it might even have a sexual quality.

I'm not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.

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.

I do not see how a man can work on the frontiers of physics and write poetry at the same time. They are in opposition.