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 January 2007:

Warhol himself grew weary of his creation, ("In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.") twisting it with meaningless substitutions: "In the future 15 people will be famous," he'd say, or "In 15 minutes everybody will be famous."

Practice doesn't make perfect, not is it supposed to. Practice is about increasing your repertoire of ways to recover from your mistakes.
  • Joann C. Guting
The covers of this book are too far apart.
  • Ambrose Bierce
Why don't you write books people can read?
  • Nora Joyce (1884 -1951) to her husband, James
The images on the screen are patterns of light, not living actors. [...] No social bond between the audience and the actors can exist.
  • O.B. Hardison, Entering the Maze: Identity and Change in Modern Culture
I'll remember forever, When I was but three, Mama, who was clever, Remarking to me; [...] (Quack, quack, quack, quack) Be a clown, be a clown, be a clown.
  • Cole Porter, "Be A Clown"
There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight.
  • Lon Chaney, Sr
To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 ? 1791)
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 (1912-1956)
As the 1960s got up to speed, [...] assassinations, missile crises, Vietnam, riots, Charles Manson, and the twenty- minute drum solo. [...]They noticed that music critics were heaping praises on Bob Dylan, [...] performers finally understood it--in order for critics to take you seriously, you had to follow a specific formula:
1. Write a song with really depressing lyrics.
2. Sing it with a shitty voice.
It became de rigueur for singers to record a tortured song with downer lyrics to prove that they were "serious" artists.
  • Tom Reynolds (1960- ) _I Hate Myself And Want To Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard_ [2006]
Patsy [Cline] thought my music was unique and wonderful. Of course, I agreed with her. That made two of us.
  • Roger Miller (1936-1992)
The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives meaning to our life on this unavailing world.
  • Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946)
South African research scientists from the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria to analyze twenty-four pipe fragments found on the grounds of William Shakespeare's home. The findings, published in the South African Journal of Science, show that eight of the pipes tested contain traces of cannabis and two of the pipes contain traces of cocaine. Others appear to be laced with tobacco, camphor, and hallucinogenic nutmeg extracts high in myristic acid.
  • About Shakespeare (reported in Nature magazine)

 

 

 

 

quote