“Remember: It costs nothing to encourage an artist, and the potential benefits are staggering. A pat on the back to an artist now could one day result in your favorite film, or the cartoon you love to get stoned watching, or the song that saves your life. Discourage an artist, you get absolutely nothing in return, ever.”
― Kevin Smith, Tough Shit: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good

“Weirdism is definitely the cornerstone of many an artist's career.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.”
― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“I quit smoking in December. I’m really depressed about it. I love smoking, I love fire, I miss lighting cigarettes. I like the whole thing about it, to me it turns into the artist’s life, and now people like Bloomberg have made animals out of smokers, and they think that if they stop smoking everyone will live forever.”
― David Lynch

“You've always lived a life of pretense, not a real life-- a simulated existence, not a genuine existence. Everything about you, everything you are, has always been pretense, never genuine, never real.”
― Thomas Bernhard, Woodcutters

“Do you know why we have the sunflowers? It’s not because Vincent van Gogh suffered. It’s because Vincent van Gogh had a brother who loved him. Through all the pain, he had a tether, a connection to the world. And that is the focus of the story we need – connection.”
― Hannah Gadsby

“Why is it every other person you meet says they're an artist? A real artist doesn't need to gas on about it, he doesn't have time. He does his work and sweats it out in silence, and no one can help him at all.”
― Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

“The artist lives to have stories to tell and to learn to tell them well.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“நோயாளியும், பித்தனும், ஞானியும், கலைஞனும் இரவில் தூங்குவதில்லை..”
― Jeyamohan

“A writer's heart, a poet's heart, an artist's heart, a musician's heart is always breaking. It is through that broken window that we see the world...”
― Alice Walker

“Fueled by my inspiration, I ran across the room to steal the cup of coffee the bookshelf had taken prisoner. Lapping the black watery brew like a hyena, I tossed the empty cup aside. I then returned to the chair to continue my divine act of creation. Hot blood swished in my head as my mighty pen stole across the page.”
― Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy

“In my experience, what every true artist wants, really wants, is to be paid.”
― Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

“It's temples and palaces did seem
Like fabrics of enchantment pil'd to heaven.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation

“Thanks for your encouraging words. But I know the grim realities of being an artist. Most of us would never make a mark in this world. Nearly all of us would be living in oblivion and would face utter neglect by society. You know what? I am prepared for that. It doesn’t matter whether people laud and appreciate my artistic skills or not. Or whether I live a life of non-recognition. I expect nothing. One becomes a true artist only when one creates art just for the sake of it and not for monetary gains or approval from people. I want to become a true artist. Yes, that would give me happiness.”
― Abhaidev, The Influencer: Speed Must Have a Limit

“I was lucky to live in New York when it was dangerous and edgy and cheap enough to play host to young, penniless artists. That was the era of "coffee shops" as they were defined in New York—cheap restaurants open round the clock where you could eat for less than it would cost to cook at home. That was the era of ripped jeans and dirty T-shirts, when the kind of people who are impressed by material signs of success were not the people you wanted to know.”
― Edmund White, City Boy: My Life in New York in the 1960s and 70s

“Dear brother,

I feel what Pa and Ma instinctively think about me (I don’t say reasonably).
There’s a similar reluctance about taking me into the house as there would be about having a large, shaggy dog in the house. He’ll come into the room with wet paws — and then, he’s so shaggy. He’ll get in everyone’s way. And he barks so loudly.
In short — it’s a dirty animal.
Very well — but the animal has a human history and, although it’s a dog, a human soul, and one with finer feelings at that, able to feel what people think about him, which an ordinary dog can’t do.
And I, admitting that I am a sort of dog, accept them as they are.

Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo, Nuenen, 15 December 1883”
― Vincent van Gogh

“Judging your early artistic efforts is artist abuse.”
― Julia Cameron

“A pursuit for perfection is the most leading cause of procrastination in artists.”
― Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon - The Artist's Guide to Liberation from Procrastination

“As far as I know, every person has a dream. Every person is a born artist.”
― Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon - The Artist's Guide to Liberation from Procrastination

“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.”
― James McNeill Whistler

“Creativity is the brain's invisible muscle -- that when used and excercised routinely -- becomes better and stronger.”
― Ashley Ormon

“Suppressing your capabilities with your fixed beliefs is a form of artistic suicide.”
― Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon - The Artist's Guide to Liberation from Procrastination

“Deep inside, we are all artists who can't find the crayons that were given to us in playschool.”
― Neeraj Agnihotri, Procrasdemon - The Artist's Guide to Liberation from Procrastination

“Where there is a true art and genuine virtuosity the artist can paint an incomparable masterpiece without leaving even a trace of his identity.”
― Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red

“When people say that nothing happens in their lives I believe them. But you must understand that everything happens to an artist; time is always redeemed, nothing is lost and wonders never cease.”
― Muriel Spark, Loitering with Intent

“No excellent soul is exempt from mixture of madness”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Artists are haunted souls.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“In retrospect, I think those people dressed in costumes walking up Montparnasse must have seen someting before anybody else did. When they looked at me and said, "This guy comes with us," I think it wasn't just an accident, it was as clear a sign as I would ever get that I was going to enter the life of the artist. I was going to disrobe myself, I was going to put on a new identity, I was going to be somebody else.”
― Philip Glass

“Be true to the artist in you and the art will be true to you.”
― Christina Strigas, A Book of Chrissyisms

“An artist's legacy is not just a body of work; it is the archaeology of their lives and of life itself.”
― Stewart Stafford