Artist Quotes - Page 247

The best artists transcend nationality and identity.

But I want to deepen as an artist, and working with Shakespeare definitely points in that direction.

I don't know if it will be my big comeback, but I think it is a statement - that I am a self-sustaining, vibrant, long-term artist, and I'm not going away! And if you don't give me credit, then the musical gods will!

The more hedonistic you were, the better...I very much subscribed to that as a young artist.

As an artist, you put so much into what you do and it can all be torn down in a nanosecond.

The artist who gave me the most inspiration and direction, especially as a singer - and I absolutely consider myself a singer, 100 percent - is Nina Simone. She's my ultimate pianist-singer-type person.

I feel like there are moments where musicians may be more interested - or culture in general - to show roots and where one comes from. And later there comes a time where that has lesser importance for artists, and instead they become more interested in affiliating themselves with global or international trends. Fortunately, we were in the right place at the right time, and that allowed us to experiment, play and enjoy.

A number of artists have done things with Mickey Mouse - including Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol. He's such an American symbol, and such an anti-art symbol.

A visual image in the hand of an artist is merely a tool to trigger a mental image.

Artists don't always know. Almost every song I ever recorded that was a hit at the majors that the promotional people picked I didn't think it would be a hit. I was wrong every time!

I always had to fight. I still do, believe it or not. When I had to go backstage. Even in Paris, I remember Billie Blair - a great model at the time - had to sneak me in by telling people I was her hairdresser. But her hair was so short, practically shaved. I said, "Couldn't you say I was your makeup artist?"

Often I combine many sources to create one painting, so it is not usually one particular experience or moment that leads to its creation. I think most artists are just open nets and catch all sorts of inspiration along the way of our daily lives, and that all comes to together in strange and different ways in the studio.

Bring something new, something beautiful and something filled with light into the world.

I had met American artists and just couldn't believe their energy. London was always such a struggle to get anything going.

A lot of people who are actors and artists who work in Hollywood come from a background of abuse, and you can make abused people very fearful and they'll do what they're told. Hollywood definitely has a point of view that it sells.

What's weird about the cinema business is that you have to have a thick skin while remaining vulnerable as an artist. It comes with time. You get dumped, your heart gets broken.

As an artist I just think comedic actors are really underrated.

Artists are able to do well in the political arena because of fame, if only they can educate themselves.

I never think of myself as an artist. I think of myself as making a point.

In an atmosphere of liberty, artists and patrons are free to think the unthinkable and create the audacious; they are free to make both horrendous mistakes and glorious celebrations.

Working with artists and other poets has made me aware that there was a bigger "me" that I hadn't been quite aware of. Plus we had a good time. It's so much fun to write, for example, with a big brush on a giant piece of paper and to help create visually attractive and surprising objects, which is not what you normally do when you're writing a poem. It's wonderful to create these pieces with artists.

I'd actually really love to review books and films and plays, but you can't be an artist and a critic. I would love it if I could.

Artists can help re-imagine a conflict and start a dialogue.

Artists do not run away from non-being, but by encountering and wrestling with it, force it to produce being.

... what the artist or creative scientist feels is not anxiety or fear; it is joy. I use the word in contrast to happiness or pleasure. The artist, at the moment of creating, does not experience gratification or satisfaction... Rather, it is joy, joy defined as the emotion that goes with heightened consciousness, the mood that accompanies the experience of actualizing one's own potentialities.