Mel > Mel's Quotes

“All experience is great providing you live through it.
If it kills you, you've gone too far.”
― Alice Neel

“Whether I'm painting or not, I have this overweening interest in humanity. Even if I'm not working, I'm still analyzing people.”
― Alice Neel

“Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.”
― Oscar Wilde

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”
― Émile Zola

“We divide the roles of mystic, doctor, therapist, artist, herbalist, naturalist, and storyteller into separate, often inimical professions. In most other societies, there was one word, one job assignment, for somebody who was all these things at once.”
― Martha N. Beck

“Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth: They don’t know where the good stuff comes from. They just show up to do their thing. Every day.”
― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

“...and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?”
― Vincent Willem van Gogh

“You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.”
― Rick Riordan

“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”
― Bob Ross

“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
― Vincent Willem van Gogh

“We have art in order not to die of the truth.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche