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 July 2007:

I'm interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos--especially activity that appears to have no meaning.

If you could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint.
  • Edward Hopper (1882-1967) _Mental Floss Magazine_ [Nov/Dec 2006]
 I didn't realize people took songs so seriously, and it made me wonder whether I ought to consider the consequences [of what I write].
  • Jim Morrison (1943-1971) In Raymond Obstfeld's _Jabberrock_ [1997]
 In everything one must consider the end.
  • Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) _Fables_, Book III [1668], Fable 5
 It's rare these days to find a hitmaking band that's also great in concert. Having lost a lot of our tradition of working up through the bar circuit, we've bred a generation of groups who know every studio trick, but who couldn't work up a sweat on stage for fear of spoiling their haircuts.
  • Greg Shaw, liner notes to Creedence Clearwater Revival's The Concert, 1980
 If a man, sitting all alone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need never try to write romances.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) _The Scarlet Letter_ [1850], The Custom House
 [...] since the more I read, the more I meditate; and the more I acquire, the more I am enabled to affirm that I know nothing.
  • Voltaire 1694-1778, Philosophical Dictionary (1752)
 One by one, and two by two, He tossed them human hearts to chew.
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) _The Mask Of Anarchy_ [1819], Stanza 3
 I am not strictly speaking mad, for my mind is absolutely normal in the intervals, and even more so than before. But during the attacks it is terrible - and then I lose consciousness of everything. But that spurs me on to work and to seriousness, as a miner who is always in danger makes haste in what he does.
  • Vincent van Gogh d. Auvers 1890
 They [rent-boys], from the point of view through which I, as an artist in life approached them, were delightfully suggestive and stimulating. It was like feasting with panthers. The danger was half the excitement.
  • Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) _De Profundis_
 "Neurotic" means he's not as sensible as I am, and "psychotic" means he's even worse than my mother-in-law.
  • Karl A. Menninger (1893-1990)
 Nobody in Hollywood is innocent.
  • Archibald Alec Leach (Cary Grant) (1904–1986)
 A bumper of good liquor Will end a contest quicker Than justice, judge, or vicar.
  • Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) _The Duenna_ [1775], Act 2, Scene 3
 New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion.
  • Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) _Letter to Daniel Ricketson_ [August 18, 1857]
[...] I saw my penis lying on a blanket next to a broken toaster oven.
Some guy was selling it. I had to buy it off him. [...]
  • Detatchable Penis (song) by King Missile
 Sometimes I would almost rather people take away years of my life than take away a minute.
  • Pearl Bailey

 

 

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