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

“Be serious. Folk songs are serious. That's what Pete Seeger told me. "Arlo, I only wanna tell you one thing. Folk songs are serious."”

“I love scrapes. They are the only things that are never serious."
"Oh, that's nonsense, Algy. You never talk anything but nonsense."
"Nobody ever does.”

“Serious art is born from serious play.”

“All serious innovation is only rendered possible by some accident
enabling unpopular persons to survive.”

“There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists.”

“Critique of art is not only useless, it is damaging. Art is an expression of self. It is the soul played out upon this physical world. And so, you can no more critique art, than you can critique the human soul. That is why (beyond simple technique that may enable an artist to further express their perspective) I do not believe in art school, for art and school are a serious contradiction in terms.”

“The serious revolutionary, like the serious artist, can't afford to lead a sentimental or self-deceiving life.”

“All serious art, music, literature is a critical act. It is so, firstly, in the sense of Matthew Arnold's phrase: "a criticism of life." Be it realistic, fantastic, Utopian or satiric, the construct of the artist is a counter-statement to the world.”

“Life is serious but art is fun!”