Top 200 Artist Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.”

— Michelangelo

52. “Music is a total constant. That’s why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in your or the world, that one song says the same, just like that moment.”

— Sarah Dessen

53. “Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.”

— Vincent van Gogh

54. “I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”

— Vincent van Gogh

55. “It’s just me against the world.”

— Tupac Shakur

56. “Whatever makes you happy, you put in your world.”

— Bob Ross

57. “There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are the doors.”

— Jim Morrison

58. “If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn’t call it genius. ”

— Michelangelo

59. “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”

— Pablo Picasso

60. “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

— Andy Warhol

61. “Music is everybody’s business. It’s only the publishers who think people own it.”

— John Lennon

62. “The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.”

— Eminem

63. “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”

— Vincent van Gogh

64. “Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.”

— Charlie Chaplin

65. “To me, photography is about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

— Elliott Erwitt

66. “When I say or do something I do it, I don’t give a damn what you think, I’m doing this for me...”

— Eminem

67. “No need to fix what God already put his paint brush on.”

— J. Cole

68. “We have nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore – except to make our lives into a work of art.”

— Lana Del Rey

69. “To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.”

— Ansel Adams

70. “The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.”

— Neil Gaiman

71. “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

— Edgar Degas

72. “The true beauty of music is that it connects people.”

— Roy Ayers

73. “I have nothing to lose, but something to gain.”

— Eminem

74. “I write to discover what I know.”

— Flannery O'Connor

75. “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender.”

— Tupac Shakur

76. “Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours.”

— Hermann Hesse

77. “Those who are heartless, once cared too much.”

— Frank Ocean

78. “Live without pretending, love without depending, listen without defending, speak without offending.”

— Drake

79. “Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.”

— Neil Gaiman

80. “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.”

— Pablo Picasso

81. “I have no stress, because I am the best.”

— Lil Wayne

82. “Every day create your history, every path you take you’re leaving your legacy.”

— Michael Jackson

83. “The sadness will last forever.”

— Vincent van Gogh

84. “Don’t ever go with the flow. Be the flow.”

— Jay-Z

85. “They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”

— Andy Warhol

86. “Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”

— Frida Kahlo

87. “You have to believe in yourself. That’s the secret.”

— Charlie Chaplin

88. “If you don't have any shadows you're not in the light.”

— Lady Gaga

89. “People will always talk, so let’s give them something to talk about.”

— Lady Gaga

90. “Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dali.”

— Salvador Dalí

91. “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.”

— Mick Jagger

92. “If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time.”

— Billy Joel

93. “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”

— Vincent van Gogh

94. “All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness.”

— Eckhart Tolle

95. “You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!”

— John Lennon

96. “A strong spirit transcends rules.”

— Prince

97. “Build your own pyramids, write your own hieroglyphs.”

— Kendrick Lamar

98. “I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”

— John Lennon

99. “I’m always a work in progress.”

— Billie Joe Armstrong

100. “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”

— Pablo Picasso