As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
I don't consider myself an entertainer. I consider myself an artist, and I think with that comes responsibility.
The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.
It has been a marvellous experience and a great gift collaborating with Madonna. Now that I have had the chance to see her working, I truly understand why she is so grand! I believe she is a true artist, and I am crazy about her.
The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art's audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
I'm from Brooklyn, New York. I'm a hip-hop artist. That's just that. You're going to have to accept me or just not be a fan, I guess.
Just doing a project because it's an opportunity won't create meaning. As an artist, I need something to communicate.
Until very recently, the artist was a magician who did his magic in public view but kept himself and his effects a matter of mystery.
As an artist, I've always wanted to participate in the dialogue of art with other artists.
I am not an artist which is 'in.'
If an artist can take two minutes to tweet a fan and make his or her day, why wouldn't they take advantage of that?
I have been known as the minimal and conceptual artist for over five decades. I think I haven't changed much.
I've learned a lot with every character, everything from being a cop, to a lawyer to a tattoo artist. And underneath that stuff, I've been really able to find myself through the characters. It's served as a cheap form of emotional therapy.
I never stopped recording, but I went through a period where... The one thing that a lot of people don't know is that for as long as I've been as artist, I've been a writer and a producer.
I think that every artist dreams of renewing the forms which came before, but I think very few can be considered to have achieved that. We are all dwarves standing upon the shoulders of the giants who preceded us, and I think we must never forget that. After all, even iconoclasts only exist with respect to that which they destroy.
I think another thing is that we don't really want exclusivity. We accept that it is in the artist's interest to be on sale in every place where they sell music.
The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too - eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko's, Fatburger, Subway - I was a sandwich artist - and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.
The producing side is always a hard thing for me. I look at Flying Lotus and see producers dropping instrumentals, and I think I should do it myself. I just try to be an artist for myself. That way, it's a lot easier.
My father was a professional artist all his life who encouraged my path as an artist.
Seeing is more than a physiological phenomenon... We see not only with our eyes but with all that we are and all that our culture is. The artist is a professional see-er.
Spider-Man initially made me want to come to New York and work for Marvel; I wanted to be a comic book artist.
The true artist is never afraid of anything - including the glories of the past.
The German ueber-photographer Andreas Gursky was the perfect pre-9/11 artist.
We're gone for 280, almost 300 days a year. So 70 to 80 days I'm home every year. Being an artist, you just gotta be ready to miss certain things, like Halloween and all these kind of things that you used to be able to be free for. Birthdays, all this kind of stuff.
Why do we make records? Because we want to say something. Why are you in art? Because you want to say something. The second you don't have anything to say, you stop making art - you might start making product. And I'm interested in being an artist.
Being an artist, it's all a journey, and you learn where the subtle patterns lie.
When I was 18, I lived in Greenwich Village, New York, for nine months. At that time, I wanted to change the world, not through architecture, but through painting. I lived the artist's life, mingling with poets and writers, and working as a waiter. I was intrigued by the aliveness of the city.
You can't write a thing that is hermetically sealed; there has to be a way for the audience to get in and participate. I think that's a massively valuable discipline for any artist.
I hold strongly to my identity as a Chicago artist and want to do whatever I can to participate in creating a strong community here so that artists don't feel pressure to move somewhere else to succeed.
I think music is a powerful medium because it co-inspires. It inspires the artist who then inspires the listener, and it's a back-and-forth process.
My hardest thing was to let go, to be happy for everybody and just to enjoy. And go back to being what you were before you became an artist, and that was just a fan.
To be honest with you, I don't have one track that I consider better than the next because all I'm trying to do is still grow as an artist. I got way better since the early nineties, as far as putting words together. My best energy probably was the '90s, because I was new.
I'm an entrepreneur, a businessman. I've got a lot of money, and that doesn't go very well with the whole 'starving artist in a garret' routine.
This image of wanting to be an artist - that I would in some way become an artist -was very strong. I knew for a long, long time that that's what I would be. But nothing I ever did seemed to bring me any nearer to the condition of being an artist. And I didn't know how to do it.
For my career, I want to be able to do projects that have serious context to them or that make me grow as a person and an artist after the experience.
I feel like when it comes to rap - like, real rap music - and knowing the pioneers of rap, I feel like there's no competition for me in the NBA. Other guys can rap, but they're not as invested or as deep into actual music as I am and always have been. I think that might be what the difference is. I'm more wanting to be an artist.
