My Favorite Quotes About Art

I have always loved quotations.  Since the age of 13 or so I have been keeping a notebook in which I recorded the quips that struck a chord in me.  There is something about just a few words arranged in such a way to make you really stop and ponder the truth they convey.  For me, quotes are better than poetry because of their simplicity.The following are quotations, famous and otherwise, which ring particularly true to me as an artist.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

[Abstract art is] a product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

Al Capp 

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

Andre Gide 

I suppose no matter what I'm drawing, there will always be some sort of question in my mind about it. A work of art (even cartoon art)is never really finished; it is abandoned.

Brooke McEldowney

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.

Cicero

If you were in a burning house and there was a cat and a Rembrandt, what would you save? The cat...you would save the cat, because the cat is alive. The art is dead. It's just paint on a canvas, ink on a page. To live for art is to deny life. It's just to destroy life.

Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

Frank Zappa 

Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.

G. K. Chesterton 

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

John Singer Sargent

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.

Joseph Chilton Pearce

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso 

Why should I buy expensive art when I can make my own?

Piero Milani

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Scott Adams

All art is an imitation of nature.

Seneca

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

Albert Einstein 

Observe Everything.
Communicate Well.
Draw, Draw, Draw.

Frank Thomas, Disney Animator, When asked to give advice to young animators

When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.

John W. Gardner

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel