The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.

Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time

I have a genuine love affair with my audience. When I`m on stage they`re not privileged to see me. It`s a privilege for me to see them.

Let silence be the art you practice.

And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

Comedy is the blues for people who can?t sing.

Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

People ask me how I make music. I tell them I just step into it. It's like stepping into a river and joining the flow. Every moment in the river has its song.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange.

Each song is a child I nourish and give my love to. But even if you have never written a song, your life is a song. How can it not be?

Critics are the men who have failed in literature and art.

Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane.