All great art is an imperfect, halting attempt to catch up…

Depend upon it, the first universal characteristic of all great art is Tenderness, as the second is Truth.

— John Ruskin

What makes for great art is the courage to speak and write and paint what you know and care about.

— Audrey Flack

At the heart of all great art is an essential melancholy.

— Federico Garcia Lorca

Great art is an instant arrested in eternity.

— James Huneker

I cannot be convinced that great artists are moralists. Art is first appearances, then meaning.

— Camille Paglia

In war there is but one favorable moment; the great art is to seize it!

— Napoleon Bonaparte

The experiential test of whether this art is great or good, or minor or abysmal is the effect it has on your own sense…

— Wendy Beckett

Drinking is in reality an occupation which employs a considerable portion of the time of many people; and to conduct it in the most…

— James Boswell

I think a great artist should be able to create any style, any form, anything from rock to pop to gospel to spiritual, just…

— Michael Jackson

I feel when you walk into somebody's apartment on Fifth Avenue or house in Malibu and you see a Basquiat, a Warhol, a Richard…

— Jean Pigozzi

A great artist transforms our world, removes scales from our eyes, plugs from our ears, gloves from our fingertips, teaches us to perceive reality…

— John Edgar Wideman

One can be a great artist without being a great technician. There have been many famous ballet stars who did not have the ideal…

— Fernando Bujones

They say that art comes from the soul. The more drama in an artist's life, the more he can draw on for his art.…

— Robin Leach

Under Thatcher, who ruled us with an iron rod, great art was made. Amazing designers and musicians. Acid house was born. Very colourful and…

— Noel Gallagher

There are so many great artists, I think, who kind of suffer from being icons, legends, acknowledged masters.

— Richard Linklater