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 June 2007:

As soon as you get to a certain point, it's no longer hip to dig you.

I am the god of hell-fire and I bring you:
Fire--I'll take you to burn,
Fire--I'll take you to learn;
I'll see you burn!
  • The Crazy World of Arthur Brown _Fire_ [1968] (song)
Art can only be truly Art by presenting an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life.
  • Margaret Sarah Fuller
Once upon a time, I worked in one of those "High Fidelity"-ish record shops. If you ever bought something from me or my co-workers, you can be assured that we said horrible things about your choices the second you walked out the door.
  • Dave White, _The Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Lame_
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
  • Scott Adams
Despite the visionary's genius, he (Leonardo Da Vinci) was a flamboyant homosexual and worshipper of Nature's divine order, both of which placed him in a perpetual state of sin against God.
Moreover, the artists's eerie eccentricities projected an admittedly demonic aura: Da Vinci exhumed corpses to study human anatomy; he kept mysterious journals in illegible reverse handwriting...
  • Dan Brown (1964- )
Only a few people are interested in what you have to say, but that's all right. You don't tell the quality of a master by the size of his crowds.
  • Richard Bach (1936- ) _Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah_ [1977], "Epilogue"
The White House yesterday confirmed that it had cancelled a poetry symposium after a number of American poets threatened to turn the event into an anti-war protest. [..] No future date for the poetry event has been announced.
  • Sarah Left, The Guardian UK (January 30, 2003)
But only poets recognize myths for what they are, and who really listens to poets?
  • Poul Anderson, Orion Shall Rise
The planet is in distress and all of the attention is on Paris Hilton.
  • Al Gore, Interview by Victoria Newton, [Al Gore - Man With A Mission], _The Sun_, June 18, 2007
Over the next 12 years, I was tested, trained, and used in various ways. Electroshock, drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and other types of trauma were used to make me complain and split my personality (to create multiple personalities for specific tasks). Each alter or personality was created to respond to a post-hypnotic trigger, then perform an act and (I would) not remember it later. Your hard-earned tax dollars supported this.
  • Carol Rutz _The Australian_ (6/28/07)
Her dance spoke of nothing more and nothing less than the tragedy of being alive, and being human. It spoke, most eloquently, of pain. It spoke, most knowingly, of despair.
  • Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson, _Stardance_ (1977)
I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.
  • Vincent Van Gogh
I thought what the actors were saying was pretty mushy, but I would make noises every few minutes as if they had said something beautiful. When I did this my date would glance at me in wonder. It is a pretty good idea to make some noises when you are at a play.
  • Donald Miller (1971- )

 

 

quote