It may be that the deep necessity of art is the examination of self-deception.
—Robert Motherwell
Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.
—Henri Matisse
Painting seems like some kind of peculiar miracle that I need to have again and again.
—Philip Guston
True myths may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero—really look—and he turns into a gerbil. But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you. The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him. "You must change your life," he said. When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message: "You must change your life.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
Art is a harmony parallel with nature.
—Paul Cezanne
The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart.
—George Sand
The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.
—David Hockney
Immature artists imitate. Mature artists steal.
—Lionel Trilling
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.
—Havelock Ellis
Art is the final cunning of the human soul which would rather do anything than face the gods.
—Iris Murdoch
All good things which exist are the fruits of originality.
—John Stuart Mill
Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
—John W. Gardner
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
—Michelangelo
The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
—Gustav Mahler
I passionately hate the idea of being with it, I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.
—Orson Welles