Music, Art and Madness Quotations and Proverbs

* some views expressed in these quotations not neccesarily endorsed by the author of this file.
* for entertainment only - history is not an exact science - dates and quotes not guaranteed for accuracy.

Added for November 2005:

I think for every situation there is a song.

Isn't it funny the way some combinations of words can give you--apart from their meaning--a thrill like music?
  • C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) _The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves_ [1986], 21 March 1916
My husband's family was terribly refined.Within their circle you could know Beethoven,but God forbid if you were Beethoven..
  • Louise Nevelson
I don't really have time to sit down and write. But when I think of a melody, I call up my answering machine and sing it so I won't forget it.
  • Britney Spears (1981- )
What we need are books that affect us like some really grievous misfortune, like the death of one whom we loved more than ourselves, as if we were banished to distant forests, away from everybody, like a suicide; a book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.
  • Franz Kafka, letter to Oskar Pollak, January 27, 1904
It was always because she was looking sad and wouldn't tell me what was wrong with her on the stage, and that would really depress me. So after the show, I'd end up slapping her or something. But then we'd be okay.
  • Ike Turner (1931- ) _Jabberrock_ [1997]
I mean, sometimes, after he beat me up, I'd end up feeling very sorry for him. I'd be sitting there all bruised and torn and feeling sorry for him. . . . Maybe I was brainwashed.
  • Tina Turner (1939- ) (On her abusive marriage to Ike Turner)
Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.
  • Henri Matisse (1869-1964)
I can't express myself in any conversation. . . . But when I'm up on stage, it's all the world. It's my whole life.
  • Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) _Jabberrock_ [1997
It's funny the way most people love the dead. . . . Once you are dead you are made for life.
  • Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)
I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.
  • Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) (In Joe Kohut's _Rock Talk_ [1994])
I can trust my friends. These people force me to examine myself, encourage me to grow.
  • Cher
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
  • Albert Einstein
What the mass media offer is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten and replaced by a new dish.
  • W.H. Auden, _The Dyer's Hand_
The little girl had the making of a poet in her who, being told to be sure of her meaning before she spoke, said "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?"
  • Graham Wallas (1858-1932) _The Art of Thought_ [1926]
I think consciousness has a place in the cosmic game, the atoms-and-universe game, the big game. I can't imagine that it's mindless--there's too much organization, and the organization is too incredible.
  • Jerry Garcia (1942-1996) _The Wisdom of Jerry Garcia_ [1995]
More important than talent, strength, or knowledge is the ability to laugh at yourself and enjoy the pursuit of your dreams.
  • Amy Grant
An autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing.
  • Quentin Crisp (1908-1999) _The Naked Civil Servant_ [1968]

 

 

 

 

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