I'm 47 years old. I couldn't compete with Beyonce. I'm not competing with anyone. I've already established myself as an artist. I've been in this business for 30 years. There's no reason for me to compete with anyone.

The worst sin that can be committed against the artist is to take him at his word, to see in his work a fulfillment instead of an horizon.

An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.

Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.

The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.

I've dated the sweet mama's boy, the musician rocker, the struggling artist - basically a lot of people without jobs.

The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.

The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of white marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.

The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone.

In life we try to grow and better ourselves. As an artist, I feel like I've grown tremendously.

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.

Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last-ditch stand of the artist.

When I start to write, words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private world to life that found its first expression through reading. I really dislike the romantic notion of the artist.

I think they want to keep it separate, but I've never been a crossover artist for some reason.