Thom Yorke Quotes

I don't understand how any good art could fail to be political.

I really think there's no difference between an art piece made by a man and one made by a woman. Is it a good art piece or a bad art piece? Of course, if you're female, you're maybe dealing with different issues.

All political art is bad – all good art is political.

All good art should be political, I think, and inevitably it all becomes political really, in one way or another.

As for political poetry, as it's usually defined, it seems there's very little good political poetry.

A lot of politics in art is just institutional critique, which, in my opinion, is not all that political.

We believed that there's no such thing as good art or bad art. Art is art. If it's bad, it's something else. It was a much, much harder line in the '50s and '60s than it is now, because the idea of art education didn't exist - they didn't have a fine arts program when I was a kid.

It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism.

Most good art is left wing. It's a moot point whether there is any good right-wing art.

Art is inherently political. Even trying to make a film that has nothing to do with politics is, in and of itself, a political act.

Even if virtually anything can be art, there are levels of quality.

It's sometimes hard to talk about politics and art. Obviously, I have my core beliefs, but I think art is best when it's troublesome and pushes against stuff.

If it's good art, it's good.

What is bad painting? Picabia made some deliberately bad paintings, but they were by him, so great in a way.

I feel that all good art is powerful and simple.

If what you want to do is make good art, decide what's good and try to imitate it.

I think there's a huge lack of political artists in America, and I think it really speaks to our consumeristic culture and how people are driven to be financially successful here. It's such a shame that we don't have people who are more inspired than that.

Political art expresses the cliches you agree with, unlike propaganda, which expresses the cliches you don't.

Art is always good. It just depends if you like or not.

Some people act as though art that is for a mass audience is not good art, and I think this has been a very negative thing. I know that I have wanted very much to write books that are accessible to the widest audience possible.

All good art, to me, is uncertainty.

If you make a record, you should ask yourself, 'Did it make someone cry, in a good way, not a bad way?' There should almost be subjective emotional criteria for evaluating work, instead of just profitability.

There's an axiom I live by: 'There is no art without politics.' You either choose to engage it, or you choose political apathy. This ties in with ideas around real-time performance and feedback.

My position is that serious and good art has always existed to help, to serve, humanity. Not to indict. I don't see how art can be called art if its purpose is to frustrate humanity.

Art is not something to decorate a wall. Art is a political weapon.