“Art is what is irresistible.”

—  William Saroyan

Statement to William Bolcom, quoted in "The End of the Mannerist Century" (2004) by William Bolcom, in The Pleasure of Modernist Music edited by Arved Ashby ISBN 1580461433

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 22, 2020. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Art is what is irresistible." by William Saroyan?
William Saroyan photo
William Saroyan 190
American writer 1908–1981

Related quotes

Karlheinz Deschner photo

“The most irresistible compulsion for me is that of doubt. I have doubts about all, including my own doubtfulness. I believe little, and that not fully. Scepticism is for me not a "fine art" but an integral part of my existence.”

Karlheinz Deschner (1924–2014) German writer and activist

Am wenigsten widerstehen kann ich dem Zweifel. Ich bezweifle alles, selbst meinen Zweifel. Ich glaube wenig und auch das nicht ganz. Skepsis ist für mich keine der «schönen Künste », sondern Teil meiner Existenz.
deschner.info http://www.deschner.info/de/person/zitate.htm

Florence Earle Coates photo

“My "Poems" were written without a purpose, other than the expression of faiths and ideals strongly realized and emotions keenly felt. They were written for the joy of writing, and for the satisfaction of an irresistible impulse. It is my belief that it is not the business of art either to teach or to preach.”

Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927) American writer and poet

Written at Camp Elsinore, Upper St. Regis Lake, New York, June 24, 1898. From Book News, Aug 1898.

“The one thing to say about art is that it is one thing. Art is art-as-art and everything else is everything else. Art as art is nothing but art. Art is not what is not art.”

Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) American painter

Quote of Ad Reinhardt (1963); as cited in: Joseph Kosuth, (1969), " Art after Philosophy http://www.ubu.com/papers/kosuth_philosophy.html"
1956 - 1967
Variant: The one thing to say about art is that it is one thing. Art is art-as-art and everything else is everything else. Art as art is nothing but art. Art is not what is not art.

Adam Gopnik photo

“Child rearing is an art, and what makes art art is that it is doing several things at once.”

Adam Gopnik (1956) American journalist

How to Raise a Prodigy, The New Yorker (2018)

Gustave Flaubert photo

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)
William James photo

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Source: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 22

Guillaume Apollinaire photo

“Geometry is to the plastic arts what grammar is to the art of the writer.”

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) French poet

La géométrie est aux arts plastiques ce que la grammaire est à l'art de l'écrivain.
Les peintres cubistes (1913), reprinted in Oeuvres en prose complètes (Paris: Gallimard, 1991) vol. 2, p. 11; translation from Lionel Abel (trans.) The Cubist Painters (New York: Wittenborn, 1949) p. 13.

Elfriede Jelinek photo

“The rules of art do not exist, because what makes art art is the fact that it obeys no rules at all.”

Elfriede Jelinek book Wonderful, Wonderful Times

p 44
Wonderful, Wonderful Times (1990)

Gerhard Richter photo

“My concern is never art, but always what art can be used for.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

undated quotes, The Daily Practice of Painting, Writings (1962-1993)

Related topics