Quotes about the Other Arts
"Dance First. Think later. It's the natural order." — Samuel Beckett, contributed by Raphael Weisman
"If you teach a bear to dance, you must keep dancing until the bear wants to stop." — Steve Gilmore
"Television – a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well done. — Ernie Kovacs, contributed by Fred Holzhauer
"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." — Albert Einstein, contributed by Rob Solomon
"The [Vincent Black] Shadow, the jumpshot,algebra, and Euclid's geometry—they were all of the same elegant cloth, universes contained within themselves, and he was good at them. He wasn't quite so good with girls or rooms full of people or English classes where poetry was discussed until it didn't exist." — Robert James Waller, Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend
"The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude." — Friedrich Nietzsche, from Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology
"..that's what I am, Frank thought, an ordinary genius. He had unlocked the secret of radio. The sport of the ordinary! Brillliant me like Reed Seymour couldn't figure this out for the life of them! Reed was ashamed of radio. ...radio was a cinch if you kept reaching down and grabbing up handfuls of the ordinary." — Garrison Keillor, WLT: A Radio Romance
"...the average tax payer is not a big voluntary supporter of the arts. The only art that the average taxpayer buys voluntarily either has a picture of Bart Simpson on it or little suction cups on its feet so you can stick it onto a car window." — Dave Barry, Dave Barry Talks Back
"You almost never hear members of the public saying, 'Hey! Let's all voluntarily chip in and pay a sculptor upwards of $100,000 to fill this park space withwhat appears to be the rusted remains of a helicopter crash!' It takes concerted government action to erect one of those babies." — Dave Barry, Dave Barry Talks Back
"Talent excuses cruelty."
"Not talent, Thomas. Genius
maybe." — dialog from The Weight of Water
"Disabilites are now a huge creative opportunity for us. We
don't focus on them, but we don't ignore them, either. ...PHAMALY
opened my world again. It allowed me to become confident as a person
with a disability. ...I want to help people find their personal voice
through theater." — Regan Linton, who appears in the Physically
Handicapped Actors and Musical Artists League's productions, quoted
by Kate Johnson in "Arts / PHAMALY matters," University
of Denver Magazine Spring 2010
"Early on, [Allen True] begins to get a little frustrated with
that printed page thing because it's so ephemeral. People would open
the page and read it and see his picture and then flip the page, and
that would be the last they'd ever see of it. He wanted something that
would endure." — Peter Hassrick on Allen True's transition
from illustrator to easel paintings and then murals, quoted by Gary
Glascow in "History / True West," University of Denver Magazine
Spring 2010
"Illustrations reach a number of people, but the impact of mural
work in architectural settings—as public art and the messages
they convey—[Allen True] believes that to be the most important
medium to him. He sees them as being a permanent fixture that are
part of the building that people can see and experience and learn
from." — Alisa Zahller on Allen True's transition from
illustrator to easel paintings and then murals, quoted by Gary Glascow
in "History / True West," University of Denver Magazine
Spring 2010
"The funny thing is that the process of coming up with an idea
for a column or a 'Candid Camera' sequence is essentially the same thing.
I just live my life with eyes and ears perhaps a little bit wider open
than some people. Whatever bothers me or seems off kilter or in need
of parody—or on a serious subject, in need of examination—in
the past I had done a sequence about it. Now I write a column about
it." — Peter Funt, quoted by Gary Glasgow in "People
/ 'Camera' man," University of Denver Magazine Spring 2010
"I can't recall who first outlined for me the distinction between
'art of its age' and 'art for the ages,' but, over the years, I've
thought of it often when approaching pop songs as a fan and critic.
As a marketable cmmodity, one which reflects current patterns and
trends, popular music tends to evince, sometimes awkwardly, the cultural
reference points of the time in which it was created. Of course, every
work of art dates to a certain extent; however, art that dates well
can move beyond temporal boundaries in a way that speaks to us about
our lives in the present. Applied to pop music, , it's the difference
between a performance that sounds fresh each time we approach it ...
and one whose charms are more evervescent, rooted in a specific time
and place." — Dick Holler, "Behind the Song / 'Abraham,
Martin and John'," American
Songwriter, Nov / Dec 2009
"My favorite trip was to the Museum of Modern Art. For years I
had been hooked on Beethoven's Nineth Symphony, shamefully to the exclusion
of a lot of other music. I have different versions of it, and that day
I was listening to Stokowski's on my headphones as I went in.When I
got upstairs and turned the corner, I saw Monet's 'Waterlilies' for
the first time. I know there are many paintings he did of this subject,
but I had no idea how enormous this one was. The crescendo of 'Ode to
Joy' caught me as I stood there and realized that I was listening to
music a deaf man wrote while looking at a painting a blind man painted."
— Brett Butler, Knee Deep in Paradise
"In 1938, Alex Steinweiss invented the album cover. It’s
almost unimaginable that there was a time when records didn’t
have covers (up until that point, they were sold in relatively plain
brown paper wrappers advertising the record companies). Steinweiss’
idea was a huge marketing success which exploded into a new and exciting
world of art and design. Now artists could explore their creativity
in more expressive ways in a new commercial market. During the 1940s,
’50s and ’60s Jim Flora, Ben Shahn, Rudolph de Harak,
Reid Miles, Steinweiss, and even Andy Warhol were major contributors
to album cover design." — "Classic LP covers and why
they're still fresh" e-mail from DiscMakers
"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from
the head, almost nothing." — Marc Chagall, answer to Celebrity
Cipher
"My art is for anybody, it's for people who wouldn't go into
an art gallery. It's art for the people." — Julian Beever
aka "Pavement Picasso" (chalk artist)
"Art shouldn't be locked away in galleries and libraries and
books. Art should be for everybody and not just art buffs, historians
and so-called experts." — Julian Beever aka "Pavement
Picasso" (chalk artist)
"That, to me, is the part that's the most frustrating —
having something that is not in a state to be seen, or publicly reviewed,
getting out there. I'm keeping things secret ultimately for the audience.
"You're taking things too seriously if you're losing too much
sleep over plotlines getting hout here and there. ... This is entertainment,
and I feel like at a certain point, entertainment needs to be an experience
and not information." — J.J. Abrams, quoted by Brian Truitt
in "The man who holds the secrets," USA Weekend, October
24-26, 2008
"For students in Kit Carson's kindergarten through fifth-grade
classes, the arts are a regular part of each school day — just
like reading or math.
"Not only are students winning national music awards, they're also
building strong work ethics, learning about team-work and sharpening
their creativity. Those skills carry over into academics and, later,
the workplace. ...
"Work is now under way to improve arts education in Colorado's
public schools and to better weave the arts into math, science, reading
and writing. Origami, for example, can introduce a child to the principles
of geometry. Musical notes — a half note, a quarter note —
help a child begin to learn fractions. ...
"We must provide a complete education that includes the arts if
we want to graduate students with the creativity and innovation they'll
need to soar." — Dwight Jones and Elaine Mariner, "Arts
as key to learning as the 3 R's," The Denver Post, October 12,
2008
"One of the best things about paintings is their silence —
which prompts reflection and random reverie." — Mark Stevens,
answer to "Celebrity Cipher" by Luis Campos, Rocky Mountain
News, August 28, 2008
"The true artists is one who insists on producing a supply, whether
or not there's any demand." — Ashleigh Brilliant, "Pot
Shots," The Rocky Mountain News August 22, 2008
"Read the classics one hour every day, drunk or sober. Reading
the classics gives one a feeling of confidence. It familiarizes one
with the vagaries of life. It shows one that there are really no new
plots." — Racehorse Haynes, quoted by Kinky Friedman in
"Kinky Friedman's Guide to Texas Etiquette"
"Movies used to be filmed at a much more languorous pace. Today's
movies look like they cut up the frames .... and mixed them with a salad
shooter." — Batiuk & Ayers, "Crankshaft," The
Denver Post, August 3, 2008
"Putting together a piece of art is more than creating something
that is aesthetically beautiful, although that's part of it. You have
to put meaning in it, and to do that ... you have to know yourself
and truly know what you believe." — Michael Lente, quoted
by Megan Kimble, "One to Watch / Michael Lente, creative writing
and art," University of Denver Magazine, Summer 2008
"...a new kind of interactive fiction. These narratives unfold
in fragments, in all sorts of media, from Web sites to phone calls to
live events, and the audience pieces together the story from shards
of information. The task is too complicated for any one person, but
the Web enables a collective intelligence to emerge to assemble the
pieces, solve the mysteries, and in the process, tell and retell the
story online. The narrative is shaped—and ultimatelyowned—by
the audience in ways that other forms of story tellingcannont match.
No longer passive consumers, the players live out the story. Eight years
ago, this kind of entertainment didn't exist; now dozens of such games
are launched every year, many of them attracting millions of followers
on every continent." — Frank Rose, "This Buzz for You,"
Wired magazine, Jan 2008
"...inspired by the spectacular sunsets visible from his new
home, our here takes up painting—but through his newfound talent
he soon discovers he can channel both secrets of the past...and scary
visions of the future.'Okay, buddy, put down the brush and step
away from the easel...'" — review of Stephen King's
novel Duma Key, "Navigator," AARP magazine, March&April
2008
"Life may not be the party we hoped for,but while we`re here we
should dance." — unknown
"In the isolated farmland counties of eastern Nebraska, where
it is not uncommon to drive 30 miles for groceries, polka helps tie
people together. The dances and the radio shows devoted to the music
keep old friends in touch and circulate local news. But the music
has been slowly fading since the 1980s as the farming population in
Nebraska shrinks. 'It's our generation's fault,' said Darlene Kliment,
68, who owns the Starlite Ballroom west of Omaha with her husband,
Ron. 'When we were growing up, our parents would take us to the dances.
We'd fall asleep on the side of the stage, or in the booths. But then
when our generation grew up, we got babysitters.'" — "In
Focus: The last dance," The Denver Post, December 30, 2007
"I just wanted to take a moment and thank the Writers Guild for
their strike. It has forced television networks to play older shows
and reruns that are of a better quality than any of the current shows
have. Thanks for making TV good again — I hope you all continue
striking!" — Rich Passarelli, Aurora, Perspective,
The Denver Post, December 30, 2007
"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting
and autumn a mosaic of them all." — Stanley Horowitz, answer
to Celebrity Cipher, Colorado Springs Gazette, Dec 22, 2007
"The Arts teach us nothing except the significance of life."
— Henry Miller, quoted in a Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP ad
"The Arts allow us to discover who we can be." —
Northern Trust ad
"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced
at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied
by at least one laugh." — Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted by
David Baird, A Thousand Paths to Happiness
"Life is rather like acting lessons while you are on stage giving
a public performance!" — David Baird, A Thousand Paths
to Happiness
"It was a career-defining moment. It defined that fact that I
still have something that passes for a career." — Jim Ratts,
Oct 31, 2007
"An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run
with hope in his heart and dreams in his head." — Emil
Zapotek, answer to Celebrity Cipher, Colorado Springs Gazette, Nov.
5, 2007
"Great art picks up where nature ends." — Marc Chagall,
answer to Celebrity Cipher, Colorado Springs Gazette, Nov. 1, 2007
"Laughter is the glue of creation." — unknown
"All art is quite useless." — Oscar Wilde
"A man paints with his brains not with his hands." —
Michelangelo
"You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether
what you're doing is work or play." — Warren Beatty (answer
to 6/29/07 Celebrity Cipher)
"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of
things, but their inward significance." — Aristotle (answer
to 6/28/07 Celebrity Cipher)
"
Ernie [Martinez
 ]
doesn't read minds. He waits for the movie." — Jim Ratts
Bob Hope on his career:
- ON GIVING UP HIS EARLY CAREER, BOXING "I ruined my hands
in the ring ... the
referee kept stepping on them."
- ON NEVER WINNING AN OSCAR "Welcome to the Academy Awards
or, as it's called at my home, 'Passover'."
- ON GOLF "Golf is my profession. Show business is just to
pay the green fees."
- ON RECEIVING THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL "I feel very humble,
but I think I have the strength of character to fight it."
- ON HIS SIX BROTHERS "That's how I learned to dance. Waiting
for the bathroom."
- ON GOING TO HEAVEN "I've done benefits for ALL religions.
I'd hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality."
— contributed by
Bob Turner 
"Even as a listener and fan, I have to pace myself. We get 'burn
out' on this side of the fence, too." — Kim Davison
"... look at the list of liberals who are active in politics,
if not running. Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Warren Beatty, Springsteen,
Spielberg... And then you look at the conservatives, it's like Chuck
Norris, Bo Derek and the Gatlin Brothers. I don't know if being liberal
makes you more right, but it does seem like it makes you more talented."
— Bill Maher
— contributed by
Bob Turner
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is." — Joe DiMaggio
"I want to move to theory. Everything works in theory."
— Stuart Tarbuck
"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make
sense." — Tom Clancy (as quoted in "Don't Follow The
Rules", James Van de Walle, Women's Edition, Sept 2004
"You learn this great lesson of life: it's not about
me. It's just not. The matter of talent—which seemed so important
to you when you were young—is not of great importance. We're simply
a conduit. We take things out of the air into us and put them in the
form of stories. That's pretty much it." — Garrison Keillor,
"Keillor Instinct", AARP Magazine, March&April, 2005
"A German shepherd dog could walk in the office with a script
in his mouth, and if that script was really good, they'd buy the script."
— Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Entertainment, in "Hollywood
to Writers: You're Fired!" by Barbara Basler, AARP Bulletin, Jan
2005
"Guber says that's not age discrimination. 'You're actually
making a judgment of who's more likely to execute the material in
a manner that will address the audience you want to reach.'"
in "Hollywood to Writers: You're Fired!" by Barbara Basler,
AARP Bulletin, Jan 2005
"I never watched Friends, maybe because it was written by people
straight out of college....The only way to avoid age discrimination
in Hollywood is to die young." — Larry Gelbart, creator of
M*A*S*H, in "Hollywood to Writers: You're Fired!" by Barbara
Basler, AARP Bulletin, Jan 2005
"We don't need anyone over 50 years of age to succeed with our
business plan." — former Fox Broadcasting president Jamie
Kellner, in "Hollywood to Writers: You're Fired!" by Barbara
Basler, AARP Bulletin, Jan 2005
"It's a myth that older writers can't write for younger audiences.
Shakespeare wasn't 15 when he wrote Romeo and Juliet." —
Tracy Keenan Wynn, in "Hollywood to Writers: You're Fired!"
by Barbara Basler, AARP Bulletin, Jan 2005
"Once you hit 40, you can't do it anymore. Who's got this energy
to go on three hours of sleep? You just can't do it." —
Marta Kauffman, TV executive and co-creator of the hit television
series Friends, in "Hollywood to Writers: You're Fired!"
by Barbara Basler, AARP Bulletin, Jan 2005
"A comedy writer who asked not to be named wanted a young writer
to 'front' for him. 'But,' he recalls, 'I didn't know any young writers.
And I didn't want to hang around outside writing schools saying, Hey,
come here kid, i've got a script to show you.'" — in
"Hollywood to Writers: You're Fired!" by Barbara Basler, AARP
Bulletin, Jan 2005
"On Nov. 13, 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of 'Treasure
Island' and 'Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,' is born in Scotland. Stevenson's
decision to pursue a career as a writer alienated his parents, who
expected him to follow the family trade of lighthouse keeping."
— "Moments in time, The History Channel", in Tidbits
of Northern El Paso County, November 8, 2004
"Listening to radio was like group meditation or a moment of silence
in church. You can't get the same effect with TV unless you're very
drunk." — Jackson Beck, the man who regularly introduced
Superman to radio fans, as told to Newsweek
—contributed by
Bob Turner
"Dyslexic poets write inverse." — John Licht
"On a personal note, I remember observing, some 40+ years ago,
that one reason I was a good dancing teacher was that I had only limited
talent. Because my talent was limited, I encountered most of the problems
that the average dancing student encountered. Because I had *some* talent,
I could solve those problems. Because I could communicate (a key requirement
for any teacher) I could tell others how to solve those problems. (A
'natural' talent never encounters the problems, and therefore doesn't
know the solutions.)" — Bob Dolan
"We found that people receive more enduring pleasure
and satisfaction from investing in life experiences than material possessions,"
says [Leaf Van] Boven, and assistant psychology professor [at the University
of Colorado]." — Linda Castrone, "In the end, we always
go back to the classics", Denver Post, April 26, 2004
"Popular culture has always been moronic. It has to be, by mathematics.
I mean, one-half of the population is by definition below median intelligence."
— P. J. O'Rourke
"Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they
are great because of their passion." — Martha Graham
— contributed by
Mark Merryman
"Remember, Art is not just another man's name." — John
Macey
— contributed by
Ernie Martinez
"Critics can't even make music by rubbing their back
legs together." — Mel Brooks, contributed by Stuart Tarbuck
"Anyone who thinks sunshine is happiness has never danced in the
rain." — Unknown
"'Isuzu' means '50 bells' in Japanese." — unknown,
Southeast Tidbits, Dec. 9, 2002
"We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because
we stop playing." — unknown
"Boxing is like ballet, except there's no music, no choreography,
and the dancers hit each other." — attributed to Jack Handey
by Stuart Tarbuck
"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you best
teach it to dance." — George Bernard Shaw
"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as
well dance." — Confucius
Slogan of a country radio station in Kansas: "Am I a winner, or
what?"
Slogan of 105.9, the classic rock radio station in Chicago:
"Of all the radio stations in Chicago, we're one of them."
"...when the schtick hits the fans ..." — Joe Jewel
"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by
those who could not hear the music." — Angela Monet, from
the Spring 2001 Swallow Hill Music Association Quarterly
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