I think, because I'm an artist, part of my job is to be a barometer, an antenna. It's in the air and it resonates with a lot of people to lighten up.
I think being tortured as a virtue is a kind of antiquated sense of what it is to be an artist. It comes out of that Symbolist idea, back to Rimbaud and all that disordering of the senses and all of that being some exalted state. When I've been that way, I've always been less exalted than I would have liked.
The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.
I want to be an artist, not... a celluloid aphrodisiac.
My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it.
The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.
Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.
It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.
I found poetry at 12 and 13 and, lo and behold, learned that my attorney father had a background in poetry - as he wore dashikis and Afros in the '70s and named his kids Arabic names. He was a poet and a lot like The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron and all of these folks. He definitely was an artist.
I have an independent record label called Favored Nations on which I released an album by an artist called Johnny A, who plays an arch top Gibson through a Marshall, but the tone is all in his fingers.
My years with Aretha Franklin have been very special, as were the years making records with Dionne Warwick. Other highlights include working with Janis Joplin, who was the first artist I ever signed, as well as Patti Smith and Alicia Keys.
The only really committed artist is he who, without refusing to take part in the combat, at least refuses to join the regular armies and remains a freelance.
I've sort of decided that I can settle for being just the artist, arranger, writer and part-time engineer. That seems like enough to do.
It is not meant that the artist, in arriving at truth, must follow the way of the scientist, or, in stating it, the way of the philosopher.
Artistic tricks divert from the effect that an artist endeavors to produce, and even excellent elements such as bullets, arrows, brackets, ornate initials, are at best superficial ornamentation unless logically employed.
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.