art Quotes

For a lot of readers these days, a book is something you have to agree or disagree with. But you can't agree with a novel. For my generation, it was assumed that a book is a dramatic thing, that the eye of the book is not telling you what to think.

The magic word 'Shakespeare' always freezes you in your chair.

If we doubt the power of literature and art to civilise, how come no one has ever been mugged by a person carrying a well-thumbed copy of 'Middlemarch' in his back pocket?

What distinguishes a great artist from a weak one is first their sensibility and tenderness; second, their imagination, and third, their industry.

I was at Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver for four years, and I loved it.

Hyperrealism can create an atmosphere of surrealism because nobody sees the world in such detail.

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.

I have been a film buff all my life and believe that the finest cinema is fully the equal of the best novels.

The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.

A poet's work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.