The Arts Quotes

Everyone who is a comedian or an actor or a musician have many people who influenced them. They in turn influence others. It is a great thing that is handed down. We need to know our history because our art is created from the re-imaginings from our minds with the seeds of the greats who combined as a potpourri in our heads to create something new. You can see it in my stand up. You can hear it in the music of today

Don't be dismayed by the opinions of editors, or critics. They are only the traffic cops of the arts.

If we truly believe in the power of cultural institutions to impact communities and engage authentically with social justice issues, if we believe in museums’ capacity to bring about social change, improve cultural awareness, and even transform the world, than we must also believe that our internal practices have an impact, and must act according to the changes we seek.

I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty

I can't think of one great human being in the arts, or in history generally, who conformed, who succeeded, as educational experts tell us children must succeed, with his peer group...If a child in their classrooms does not succeed with his peer group, then it would seem to many that both child and teacher have failed. Have they? If we ever, God forbid, manage to make each child succeed with his peer group, we will produce a race of bland and faceless nonentities, and all poetry and mystery will vanish from the face of the earth.

The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose - and is a test to the quality of a nation's civilization.