Quotes About Expression

In my work theres always been a duality between sticking to reality and trying to stage things.

What is essential in a work of art is that it should rise far above the realm of personal life and speak to the spirit and heart of the poet as man to the spirit and heart of mankind.

That's one of the things I love about being a songwriter first, last and always, because whether I do it or not, if someone does a great job on it, my work is done.

I don't personally see my work as being dark. What interests me is a balance between light and dark.

The core of my work is dedicated not to pleasing women, but to pleasing men.

When I started to work on perfume, I could not reduce the idea of a woman to one smell.

Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good.

It's always a pleasure to talk about someone else's work.

I am fine, though it is hard to think of what kind of work to make at this point, other than decorative, escapist or abstract. I suppose I'll explore one or all of these things.

The effect of sincerity is to give one's work the character of a protest. The painter, being concerned only with conveying his impression, simply seeks to be himself and no one else.

There must be some one quality without which a work of art cannot exist; possessing which, in the least degree, no work is altogether worthless.

The literary critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression, may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art he is contemplating appears to do the same.

The work of art expresses precisely those things which do not die. It must do so, however, in a form that bears witness to the artist's own era.

Consequently, their school [film-school ] was the school of life, and it was very much reflected in their work.

The true work of art is the one which the seventh wave of genius throws up the beach where the undertow of time cannot drag it back.

Art goes on in your head. If you said something interesting, that might be a title for a work of art and I'd write it down.

I apologize if there's a Parkinson's painter in the audience. I assume you do your best work in the morning. Probably gets abstract by noon.

The materials I use are absolutely essential to the work I make.

Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.

I never work with music. I hate background music, always did. I only like music in the foreground, meaning, deliberately listen to it, actually.

I've always loved the electric guitar: to hold it and work it and hear what it does is unreal.

I feel quite comfortable and happy with making a work that looks like it could have been made by somebody else.

I am a serious artist in my own right, in the sense that I've spent my entire life being an artist and trying to be an artist and making work.

In my work I've never done preliminary drawing, because it's sometimes difficult to repeat something or to continue when the urgency's gone.