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.

Rerun - The Best of December 2004:

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

I feel ghostly unreal until I become somebody else again on the screen
  • Peter Sellers
 (Purple Haze) came next [during a concert at the 1967 Montery Pop Festival], and once again Hendrix invoked his sense of humor by pointing to [Noel] Redding and singing "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy."
  • John McDermott (1947- ) _Hendrix: Setting The Record Straight_ [1992]
 Tommy Dorsey was the last of the band leaders . . . He was always ahead of his time. If he got drunk he was difficult, but then who the hell isn't difficult if you get drunk?
  • Dick Haymes (In Marshall Bowden's _Quotable Jazz_ [2002]
 I like a good lyric that's not jumping into bed in the next line. I like a lyric that means something, one that can be around 200 years from today.
  • Etta Jones (1928-2001)
 Art is a revolt against fate.
  • Andre Malraux (1901-1976) _Les Voix du Silence_ [1951], Part IV, Chapter 7
 I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose, and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all.
  • Joni Mitchell (1943- ) _Both Sides, Now_ [1969]
 I cannot convince myself that a painting is good unless it is popular. If the public dislikes one of my [Saturday Evening] Post covers, I can't help disliking it myself.
  • Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) _New York Times_ [September 28, 1986]
 The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?
  • Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
 Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity.
  • Thomas J. Watson
 In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.
  • J.G. Ballard (1930- )
 Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.
  • Daniel Barenboim (1942- ) _The Paris International Herald Tribune_ [January 20, 1989
 Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing. Taste is the enemy of creativity.
  • Pablo Picasso, (Strength to Love, 1963)
 A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it.
  • Alistair Cooke (1908 -2004)

 

 

 

 

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