Ruth St. Denis Quotes

I'm the type of artist who touches people, that's the type of artist that I am.

I just want to make art that connects with people and moves them on an emotional level. Any time I can put out music and place a story behind it and have people watch it and go, 'Wow, I was affected by that,' to me, feels like I've done my job.

One day, when I was 33, I shifted. I suddenly saw acting as a higher calling. I understood that my goal was to serve the play. And I realized if an actor can make audiences' hearts resonate or make them question their values - that's an important thing to do!

The greatest thing in the world as an actor or an artist to connect.

I've had a lot of people come up to me after shows and tell me that "Dollhouse" really helped them with whatever they were going through with their families. I thought that was really amazing, that it could mean one thing for me but another thing for someone else.

I guess that storytelling would be for me to keep making art that touches people in a way that nothing else can.

As long as my ballets are danced, I will live.

I know when I watch certain actors or if I watch Thom Yorke sing on stage, I'm affected by it emotionally. I guess that's what we are all striving for in art but that's such a beautiful thing that happens between two people that may never even meet. So when you do get to meet someone who was affected in that way, it's awesome.

I write music, and I want people to listen to it and care about it and have it make some difference in their lives. When I'm fortunate for that to happen, then of course I feel very, very good about it.

I feel close to people like Jimi Hendrix because I connect with his music. Not the man but what he did.

A dancer, if she is great, can give to the people something that they can carry with them forever. They can never forget it, and it has changed them, though they may never know it.

Music is still above all else the thing that does it for me.

The arts have always been in and around my life.

I wanted to write some lyrics that had some meaning to them, lyrics that were meaningful to me and hopefully people can take something from that.

For your songs to connect with people, they've got to mean something to you.

I don't like to be entertaining. I don't like the feeling of being entertaining. If there was a musical or a comedy that was not just for entertainment but was rooted in something I could relate to on a real level, then I think I would do it.

To me, art's highest purpose is to entertain, to enlighten, to inspire, to evoke emotion and to change an audience in some way, big or small.

In music, you feel a connection to the voice and think about the person behind it. In art that's secondary.

This is really showing me what certain movies mean to people.

I have no interest in making a work that doesn't elicit a feeling.

As a songwriter, I do kind of look at 'Santa Monica' as a thing outside of itself, because it isn't just my song. This is a song a lot of people tell me is a part of their high school or college years. That means a lot to me.

The first movie I ever cried at was when I was 10 years old and saw 'The Notebook' in theaters. I was like, 'Whoa, so weird. Crying at a movie? I'm not supposed to do that. So weird.' I didn't know that art could make you do that.

When an audience comes to one of my concerts, I hope they'll see themselves, somewhere, in one of the songs.

All really great artists, Jackson Pollack, John Cage, Beckett or Joyce - you are never indifferent to them.

You never know when what you do in the arts means something to people, and you never really know if you've been received well.