A Quote by Harry Crews

The artist lives in an atmosphere of perpetual failure.

Harry Crews

Quote Topics

Artist Atmosphere Failure Lives Perpetual

Quote Author

Harry Crews
American - Novelist
June 7, 1935 - March 28, 2012

There is no such thing as failure for an artist, unless failure is the refusal to attempt, the unwillingness to dream.

Laurence Overmire

I was worried that I, the artist Morimura, would have conflicts with the participating artists and develop a strenuous relationship with them. But the actual experience was completely the opposite. The artists accepted my requests rather positively, because it came from a fellow artist. I strongly feel that the fact that my being an artist avoided the usual curator vs artist tension, and led to creating a positive atmosphere as well as developing a solidarity amongst artists and building a community for artists.

Yasumasa Morimura

Novels are routinely denigrated when characters are not found to be likable. Is Raskolnikov likable? Is King Lear? The plethora of such naive readers testifies to a failure of imagination - the capacity to see into unfamiliar lives, motives, feelings - and this failure must, at least in part, be the failure of the teaching of literature in the schools.

Cynthia Ozick

At times failure is very necessary for the artist. It reminds him that failure is not the ultimate disaster. And this reminder liberates him from the mean fussing of perfectionism.

John Berger

What is failure? We can’t possibly know what failure is. Most people think they do, but that’s because they’re judging how their lives should be and what they need it to be: a success. Who is to say what’s a success and what’s a failure? Do your best. Trust. Relax. Do your best. Enjoy yourself.

Gary Zukav

Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are multi-volume sets. In our lives, even though one episode amounts to a crash and burn, there is always another episode awaiting us and then another. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them. Don't waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

There's the instability of my attitude as an artist, the instability of our perception of the world, and the idea that with this mix, you never know exactly what's the point of view of the filmmaker. This breaks the stability of the belief that a filmmaker is somebody who has a logical relationship with his own material. These elements create this atmosphere that I find more interesting than a normal atmosphere, based only on the characters.

Albert Serra

The man who lives for himself is a failure. Even if he gains much wealth, position or fortune, he is still a failure. The man who lives for others has achieved true success. A rich man who consecrates his wealth and his position to the good of humanity is a success.

Norman Vincent Peale

The personal lives of painters are tragic and inevitable and do not explain the artist. For the artist is his work and no longer human.

Sam Francis

My story as an artist has been about trial and error. It's been about artist development, character building, struggle, happiness and failure, family, and music.

Anderson Paak

We can depend on the world being a perpetual surprise in perpetual motion.

Stephen Nachmanovitch

The optimist lives on the peninsula of infinite possibilities; the pessimist is stranded on the island of perpetual indecision.

William Arthur Ward

Throughout his many years, he enriched the lives of countless others and served as a model of generosity and discipline to those he met, fostering an atmosphere of compassion, harmony, and unity. Sri Chinmoy was a leader, humanitarian, artist, athlete, and public servant who will be sorely missed. His legacy of kindness, reflection, and resolve will endure for many years to come.

William J. Clinton

They say there's no second act in American lives. There's something there worth exploring. Giving up an idea of yourself, examining your failure, and seeing if that failure was the system's or yours. What does it mean to not turn out to be the person you want to be?

Scott Rudin

You are so part of the world that your slightest action contributes to its reality. Your breath changes the atmosphere. Your encounters with others alter the fabrics of their lives, and the lives of those who come in contact with them.