I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge.

The nation that complacently and fearfully allows its artists and writers to become suspected rather than respected is no longer regarded as a nation possessed with humor or depth.

If you live through the initial stage of fame and get past it and remember thats not who you are. If you live past that then you have a hope of maybe learning how to spell the word artist.

Being an artist is a very long game. It is not a 10-year game. I hope I'll be around making art when I'm 80.

I hope what I do has an art to it and as an artist you have to try new things and keep yourself entertained.

I would hope they would be our fellow artists rather than trying to emulate or idolize clowns like us.

I made a real specific decision when I came out of school and most artists were writing about home - if you were a woman you were writing about being a woman - and I decided not to do that write about what you know. That's not what I do. I went as far away from home as possible in terms of the development of my imagination.

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.

The house has to please everyone contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private matter for the artist. The house is not.

I have a long-standing history of respecting artists' wishes.

Our culture now wonderfully alchemically transforms images and history into artistic material. The possibilities seem endless and wide open.

Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.

As musicians and artists it's important we have an environment - and I guess when I say environment I really mean the industry that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society.

Sadness is a very interesting idea this idea of sadness being some kind of default setting that artists will go into. And then I started thinking about this idea of sadness and happiness and the idea that sadness is very loud and happiness is quiet.

The pop musicians often leave meaning in the dust and substitute it for cartoons. The deeper artists - the grunge artists in the world and the emoticon people - tend to leave all of the happiness out of life like it just doesn't exist.

The mindset of chasing that next #1 record doesn't exist for me anymore. It's more about being a well-rounded entertainer than being a pop artist. Obviously it would be wonderful to have a hit record but I don't base my happiness on that anymore. It's about the accomplishment of a project that satisfies me. I just want to enjoy the ride.

Nobody I think ought to read poetry or look at pictures or statues who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.

A great book provides escapism for me. The artistry and the creativity in a story are better than any drugs.

I am a leader. Leaders always get heat. They're always going against the grain. Jimi Hendrix got heat Bob Marley got heat Miles Davis got heat. Every great artist got heat. Heat means you're doing something right.

The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy only the artist the great artist knows how difficult it is.

Any great warrior is also a scholar and a poet and an artist.

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

The man who throws a bomb is an artist because he prefers a great moment to everything.