“Some of you are doomed to be artists.”

Though often used by Graham, she credited this to Robert Edmond Jones. Agnes de Mille states in "The Life and Work of Martha Graham" (2010), p. 215: It was Jones who used to say to his classes, "Some of you are doomed to be artists." Martha picked up this phrase and used it many times thereafter.
Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Some of you are doomed to be artists." by Martha Graham?
Martha Graham photo
Martha Graham 48
American dancer and choreographer 1894–1991

Related quotes

David Cronenberg photo

“Everybody has antennae. Some people mute them. If you're an artist, you enhance them.”

David Cronenberg (1943) Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor

on being an artist

G. K. Chesterton photo

“An artist will betray himself by some sort of sincerity.”

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist

The Dagger with Wings (1926)

George Bernard Shaw photo

“There are some men who are considered quite ugly, but who are more remarkable than pretty people. You often see that in artists.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

1900s, Love Among the Artists (1900)

Maria Callas photo
Ai Weiwei photo

“"It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product."”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

Karen Smith et al. Ai Weiwei (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon), London: Phaidon Press, 2009.
2000-09, 2009

“There’s no diploma in the world that declares you as an artist. It’s not like becoming a doctor or something. You can declare yourself an artist and then figure out how to be an artist.”

Kara Walker (1969) African American artist

On becoming an artist in “‘There’s No Diploma in the World That Declares You an Artist’: Watch Kara Walker Lay Out Her Advice for Art Students” https://news.artnet.com/art-world/watch-kara-walker-art-21-1316030 in artnetnews (2018 Jul 12)

Paul Gauguin photo

“At the age of ten, twenty, a hundred, very young, a little older, and very old, an artist is always an artist. Isn't he better at some times, some moments, than at others? Never impeccable, since he is a living, human being?”

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist

Source: 1890s - 1910s, The Writings of a Savage (1996), p. 219: quote from 1903

Isa Genzken photo
Tracy Chapman photo

“I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in…That's what everyone should do with their lives…stand up for what they believe in, or try to do some good in the world. I don't think artists have a greater responsibility than anyone else.”

Tracy Chapman (1964) American singer-songwriter

On how artist expression can be a form of political activism in “A militant mellows” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/sep/28/artsfeatures.popandrock in The Guardian (27 Sep 2002)

Tom Petty photo

Related topics