The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: the bad artist seems to copy a great deal the good one really does.

A great artist is a great man in a great child.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated something is wrong.

That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward.

Good artists copy great artists steal.

The artist must be in his work as God is in creation invisible and all-powerful one must sense him everywhere but never see him.

It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly away as a small apprentice under God's heaven.

God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe the elephant and the cat. He has no real style He just goes on trying other things.

A garden is a complex of aesthetic and plastic intentions and the plant is to a landscape artist not only a plant - rare unusual ordinary or doomed to disappearance - but it is also a color a shape a volume or an arabesque in itself.

There's no artist in this world that doesn't enjoy the dream that if they have bad reviews now the story of Keats can redeem them in their fantasy or imagination in the future. I think Keats' poem 'Endymion' is a really difficult poem and I'm not surprised that a lot of people pulled it apart in a way.

The idea of going on tour for the rest of my life with old works is not that exciting. As an artist I definitely think the work in future is going to be better than the work in the past otherwise why do it?

I've been asked to do a retrospective since I was about 28 and I always thought that was a bit odd. It's great to look forward as an artist because in the future the possibilities are infinite you look back and it's all fixed so it's a scary thing.

I would like to see a future where artists think that they have a right to contemplate things like global warming.

I'm a big fan of certain new acts. I love any genre of music and I think it's really great to see that there are new artists coming through. It's kinda funny to think that I'm like the old man on campus now. But I'm really happy for groups like One Direction. I think they're really good guys.

It's funny growing up there was never anybody around me with any kind of artistic bent.

I don't think of myself as a comedian but as an artist a scientist and chemist who just happens to be funny. I started doing stand-up to add another level to my game. I feel that I'm a young rookie with a veteran's skill.

It's a funny relationship that makeup artists have. I always feel kind of like a dentist. People look at me and think of pain.

A good artist is willing to die many times over. What's funny is I've died so many times.

Working with David Cronenberg or Darren Aronofsky or even Steven Soderbergh isn't really like a typical Hollywood movie. These are true artists and have a certain amount of freedom when they work and they're more like independent filmmakers making their way through big studios.

That freedom that Picasso afforded himself to be an artist in a huge number of ways seems to be a huge psychological liberation.

As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities which may seem a freedom or a confusion.

I don't think that artists of any kind would or could sacrifice their artistic freedom by being more responsible with their influence on people especially young people.