Top 40 Artist Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Artists are here to disturb the peace.”

— James Baldwin

2. “All Children are Artists.”

— Pablo Picasso

3. “Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about.”

— Rumi

4. “There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.”

— Michelangelo

5. “Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter’s soul.”

— Vincent van Gogh

6. “We’re here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise, why even be here? We’re creating a completely new consciousness, like an artist or a poet. That’s how you have to think of this. We’re rewriting the history of human thought with what we’re doing.”

— Steve Jobs

7. “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”

— James Baldwin

8. “The function of artists is “the mythologization of the world.””

— Joseph Campbell

9. “I see myself forever and ever as the ridiculous man, the lonely soul, the wanderer, the restless frustrated artist, the man in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable.”

— Henry Miller

Also featured in: Lonely Quotes

10. “You are both a work of art and an artist at work.”

— Erwin Raphael McManus

11. “Artistry is important. Skill, hard work, rewriting, editing, and careful, careful craft: All of these are necessary. These are what separate the beginners from experienced artists.”

— Sarah Kay

12. “In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.”

— Toni Morrison

13. “I am in no sense of the word a great artist, not even a great animator; I have always had men working for me whose skills were greater than my own. I am an idea man.”

— Walt Disney

Also featured in: Quotes About Skills

14. “Artists are born not made. There’s nothing you can do for them.”

— Louise Bourgeois

15. “Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.”

— Salvador Dalí

16. “The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question.”

— James Joyce

17. “The rapists of the intellectual world become politicians; the seducers become artists.”

— Robert Anton Wilson

18. “Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.”

— Pablo Picasso

19. “I’m supposed to be, I am an artist. Yes, I’m lonely. But I’m married to my loneliness.”

— Lady Gaga

Also featured in: Loneliness Quotes

20. “An artist must smash down the systems that domesticate the mind.”

— Jean Giraud

21. “It is not the job of artists to give the audience what the audience want. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn’t be the audience. They would be the artist. It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need.”

— Alan Moore

22. “I am an artist first and a photographer second.”

— Andres Serrano

23. “I love things that age well – things that don’t date, that stand the test of time and that become living examples of the absolute best.”

— Giorgio Armani

24. “The great leaders of business, industry and finance, and the great artists, poets, musicians and writers all became great because they developed the power of self-motivation.”

— Napoleon Hill

25. “There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke.”

— Vincent van Gogh

Also featured in: Quotes About Fire

26. “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.”

— Langston Hughes

27. “Every time an artist dies, part of the vision of mankind passes with him.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

28. “I think the key is basically just your determination. As far an artist is concerned, it’s just about your drive and your dream.”

— Chris Brown

Also featured in: Determination Quotes

29. “We will make love an art and we will love like artists.”

— Marianne Williamson

30. “Let my enemies devour each other.”

— Salvador Dalí

31. “The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”

— William Blake

32. “If your life changes, we can change the world, too.”

— Yoko Ono

33. “The most exciting thing is not doing it. If you fall in love with someone and never do it, it’s much more exciting.”

— Andy Warhol

34. “Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.”

— Robert McKee

35. “You seldom hear any young artists in country music.”

— Conway Twitty

36. “My painting carries with it the message of pain.”

— Frida Kahlo

37. “The mother is the one supreme asset of national life; she is more important by far than the successful statesman, or business man, or artist, or scientist.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

38. “The miniatures of the Mughal period are really the pinnacle of Indian artistic achievement. And not a single one of those paintings is done by an individual artist.”

— Salman Rushdie

Also featured in: Achievement Quotes

39. “My bottom line is that I think Ridley Scott is one of the greatest visual artists of our time and I feel very privileged that he wants to work with me, so I go with that flow.”

— Russell Crowe

40. “You cannot have Liberty in this world without what you call Moral Virtue, and you cannot have Moral Virtue without the slavery of that half of the human race who hate what you call Moral Virtue.”

— William Blake