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There are thousands of very, very talented artists who will never be known, even after they are dead.

A man is known by his works. That I have heard at many a funeral.

The product of the artist has become less important than the fact of the artist. We wish to absorb this person. We wish to devour someone who has experienced the tragic. In our society this person is much more important than anything he might create.

An artist needs to live to create, and to live means to suffer.

The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist.

Is the biographer an artist who can and should exist on equal terms with the dramatist, fiction writer and poet? The short and robust answer is, 'Certainly not.'

Art is man's distinctly human way of fighting death.

That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.

I would rather die than be a serious artist, or a fake artist.

There is no doubt that the first requirement for a composer is to be dead.