There is no such thing as abstract art, or else all art is abstract, which amounts to the same thing. Abstract art no more exists than does curved art yellow art or green art.

For me, insanity is super sanity. The normal is psychotic. Normal means lack of imagination, lack of creativity.

Art is a language, an instrument of knowledge, an instrument of communication.

Personally, I believe very much in values of savagery; I mean: instinct, passion, mood, violence, madness.

Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself and an eventual extinction.

Dancing is the last word in life. In dancing one draws nearer to oneself.

The real function of art is to change mental patterns ... making new thought possible.

Man's need for art is absolutely primordial, as strong as, and perhaps stronger than, our need for bread. Without bread, we die of hunger, but without art we die of boredom.

Art must make you laugh a little and make you a little afraid. Anything as long as it doesn't bore.

Art doesn't go to sleep in the bed made for it. It would sooner run away than say its own name: what it likes is to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what its own name is.

Art addresses itself to the mind, and not to the eyes. It has always been considered in this way by primitive peoples, and they are right.

Opportunity may only knock once, but temptation'll knock down the damn door and drag you out by the hair.

A politician thinks of the next election a statesman of the next generation.

That's the way to live - around people who care. It may be a tough ride, but something is going to come out of it.

Anything is possible for women, including being a presidential nominee.

When I played Lady Day, I took Aba onstage with me as a joke. He started singing-in tune!-and the audience loved it.

Art is not a democracy. People don't get to vote on how it ends.

You ain't worth a greased lack pin to ram you into hell.

Dig deep into your heart, where the answer spreads its roots in your being, and ask yourself solemnly, Must I write?

Debt is not caused by spending, it is caused by buying things that you don't pay for. Or, it's caused by cutting revenues that you don't offset ... by cuts in spending.

To make a start, out of particulars and make them general, rolling up the sum, by defective means Sniffing the trees, just another dog among a lot of dogs.What else is there? And to do?