“I’ve tried to solve this problem by keeping my own artistic endeavors low in overhead, devoid of collaborators and as free from editorial interference as possible.”
~ Tim Kreider / NYT
Tim Kreider on Art
Steve Gambardella on Schopenhauer
“According to Schopenhauer, the “will to life” — a manifestation of “the will” in living things — is what causes the desire to stay alive and procreate. But the pessimistic older philosopher believed the will to life caused nothing but anguish since it was the source of insatiable desires. Schopenhauer reasoned that the best thing to do was renounce this will and to find peace instead in art and compassion.”
~ Steve Gambardella / Medium
Jim Harrison on Writers
Writers, I think, are sometimes productive to the extent that they remain sort of childlike about certain things. They stay operative for that reason.
~ Conversations with Jim Harrison
Lynda Barry on Money
The key to eternal happiness is low overhead and no debt.
~ Lynda Barry / Courtesy Austin Kleon
Laurie Anderson on Art
The world may end. You’re right. But that’s not a reason to be scared. None of us know what will happen. Don’t spend time worrying about it. Make the most beautiful thing you can. Try to do that every day. That’s it. You know? What are you working for, posterity? We don’t know if there is any posterity.
~ Laurie Anderson
Suzanne Brøgger on Adversity
I welcome adversity and indifference. Of course, it’s stupid if someone has chosen to disregard you because of something you’ve written but that’s their problem.
Suzanne Brøgger / Louisiana Channel
Alec Soth on Art
“Waste more time.”
~ Alec Soth / LBM Newsletter, November 27th 2020
Patrick Kavanagh on Policemen
“There is something wrong with a work of art if it can be understood by a policeman.”
~ Patrick Kavanagh / Courtesy Mark Hobson
Dahn Vo on Paradises
…and I think that is the reality and I learned that from Isamu Noguchi, that he builded like his paradises within all the problem of things.
~ Dahn Vo / Louisiana Channel
Ai Wei Wei on Art
It’s not really about how much you have, but rather about how much you make out of it.
~ Ai Wei Wei / Interview
Ai Wei Wei on Blackjack
I remember when I would go to Atlantic City, for hours I’d play a few hands of blackjack at once, because one hand takes too long to come back. A few hands at once, you are always gaining or losing. You keep it even by playing like that. [laughs]
~ Ai Wei Wei / Interview
Frank Stella on the Art World
McCARTNEY: That seems like a big difference from the art world now. What do you think of the art world?
STELLA: Fortunately, I don’t see that much of it.
~ Frank Stella / Interview
Renzo Piano on Beauty
But the beauty is something that remains. I’m not joking. I have so many friends who are musicians, and they say, “Oh, but my music goes away.” It’s not true, because they record music. And this remains for a long time.
~ Renzo Piano / Interview
Agnes Denes on Reality
I mean, people are always fighting reality until it’s pushed down their throats. It’s amazing.
~ Agnes Denes / Interview
Agnes Denes on Art
So I was on my own—totally. And there’s something good about that. Because not only did you dig deeper into yourself, but adversity—in other words, not getting acknowledgements from outside—brings out the best in you. To react to it and to become better.
~ Agnes Denes / Interview
Jasper Johns on Work
I would tend to say that I do what I do as well as possible and that most people don’t.
~ Jasper Johns / Interview
Jasper Johns on Work
Working is very important to me. Probably because as a child I was taught that work was good. I don’t believe it intellectually but I identify with that idea. So it’s probably just like a habit.
~ Jasper Johns / Interview
Donald Woodman on Self-Belief
I think the inspirational stuff comes from yourself. You have to believe in yourself. As you once said, in something I read about you, there’s a quote from Sylvia Plath: “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” You have to trust your own voices and your own confidence, in spite of criticism. What makes an artist’s career is not the immediate trajectory, acceptance, or rejection; it’s being able to stay in there and have a career in art and stick to your voice, follow where your imagination takes you, and not respond to what sells or what people encourage you to do. For people who want to be artists, I think that’s the hardest lesson to learn.
~ Donald Woodman / Interview
Ed Ruscha on Money
I never expected to sell my art. It wasn’t like today where you come out of art school and they promise you a future. Now it’s almost regulated in a way. When we came out of school, we just wanted to make art that’d blow your hair back and do it for sport.
~ Ed Ruscha / Interview
Lawrence Weiner on Art
Well, the popularity that’s necessary to get art put out into the world is really the same as it is for music. You first have to get a stage, or else nobody will know about it.
~ Lawrence Weiner / Interview, September 22nd 2020
Wim Wenders on Art
“… You have to find what you can do better than anyone else and what you have in yourself that no-one else has.”
~ Wim Wenders / Louisiana Channel
Rachel Cusk on Work
“… so I think that discipline is a massive component of creating a body of work.”
~ Rachel Cusk / Louisiana Channel
Mario Vargas Llosa on Work
The only counsel that is acceptable is to work. To work very hard… until you discover the kind of writer you want to be.
Mario Vargas Llosa / Louisiana Channel
Rachel Cusk on Integrity
“…and so I would think you get a lot further by sticking to your guns… and not trying to second-guess what people want to read.”
~ Rachel Cusk / Louisiana Channel
Tom Sachs on Work
Can you imagine getting paid really, really well to do something that you didn’t love to do? What a horrible curse that would be.
~ Tom Sachs / Louisiana Channel
Charles Bukowski on Art
Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do but most people don’t give a damn.
~ Charles Bukowski
Richard Ford on Sweating
“… but then I think well, you know, my wish as a writer… is to write masterpieces. Why shouldn’t I work that hard? Why should it be simple? … Why shouldn’t it take four years?… Art is heavy lifting… I don’t mind sweating.”
~ Richard Ford / Louisiana Channel
Louise Glück on Originality
“You have to live your life if you’re going to do original work. Your work will come out of an authentic life …”
~ Louise Glück
Jorge Luis Borges on Art
The task of the artist is to transform what is continuously happening to us… into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory. That is our duty. If we don’t fulfill it, we feel unhappy.
Maggi Hambling on Duds
“In a way lockdown hasn’t remotely affected my routine,” she says. She gets up as normal at five, goes straight to the studio — “Stiffen the sinews, summon the blood” reads the sign on the door — and works until lunchtime, “often doing complete shit, but it’s only because you have done a lot of shit paintings that a good one will sort of produce itself”.
~ Maggi Hambling / Times, 09 May 2020
Joni Mitchell on Art
“Work is meant to be seen.”
~ Joni Mitchell / New Yorker, October 16th 2019
Paul Theroux on Art
…but I felt that for art, for writing, for anything creative to have value, it must be passionate and personal.
Paul Theroux / On the Plain of Snakes