Art can be playful, serious, rebellious, and deeply practical — it reminds us that the human spirit is not a throwaway thing. These Art & Artists quotations honor the paintings, songs, and sculptures that refuse to be “disposable,” the work that stays with us for a lifetime. As choreographer Twyla Tharp reminds us, “Art is the only way to run away with out leaving home.”

Beware the artist who’s an intellectual also. The artist who doesn’t fit. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Art is constitutive — the artist determines beauty. He does not take it over. ~ Johann von Goethe, Notes for Publications on Art, 1798

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art. ~ Leonardo Da Vinci

Art is not disposable. ~ Jennifer Nettles

It doesn’t make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement. ~ Jackson Pollock

The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth, which sweeps you along in his passion. ~ Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Art flourishes when there is a sense of adventure. ~ Alfred North Whitehead

I never calculate. That is why those who do, calculate so much less accurately than I. ~ Pablo Picasso

Art must touch our lives, our fears and cares; evoke our dreams and give hope to the darkness. ~ Frederick Hart

Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art. ~ Tom Stoppard

Let each man exercise the art he knows. ~ Aristophanes

Art that only comes from the head isn’t any good. Watch any good musician and you’ll see what I mean. ~ Austin Kleon

All my works are games, serious games. ~ M. C. Escher

Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It’s what everything else isn’t. ~ Theodore Roethke, On Poetry & Craft

Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art. ~ Constantin Stanislavski, Building A Character