Jacques Barzun Quotes

I believe that art has incredible power.

The arts can bring the heart to the aid of the head, the personal to the political.

I do think that part of literature's job is to comment on and participate in the social issues of the time.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

We go to the theater to be entertained, but if what is left after you watch the movie is a sort of eye-opening perspective on some social issues, then it can be a really powerful piece of art.

I feel that art deals with issues way before any political organisation.

Music has always been my first love, and I appreciate how a great musician can bring awareness to tough issues through their work.

Cartooning, quietly and discreetly, drew me into the circle of politics and I continue to enjoy both. They both inspire me and I could never given up one for the other.

I'm a very political person, and I make political choices in my movies.

I think when people try to use their art for political views, I think they're art becomes smaller, less interesting. And so for me, as an artist, I'm trying to speak about things in a universal way and not be pedantic or small-minded and try to convince other people of my political views. But having said that, every day I live in sort of complete terror because of what I read in the newspaper and what is going on in the world. I'm constantly, as I think many of us are, overwhelmed by the sort of, mass psychosis that's occurring.

There's no connection between consumption of art and moral stamina at all.

I'm very aware of how much movies, literature and art affect culture. They are a reflection of the world around us and they are also a means by which we engage with the world around us.

Art is a reflection of everything that impacts your life.

I think if you're going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can't just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.

I love art. It really changes my mood and wakes me up.

There is no gap between art and politics.

Art should exhilarate, and throw down the walls of circumstance on every side, awakening in the beholder the same sense of universal relation and power which the work evinced in the artist.

Fine art is the subtlest, the most seductive, the most effective instrument of moral propaganda in the world, excepting only the example of personal conduct; and I waive even this exception in favor of the art of the stage, because it works by exhibiting examples of personal conduct made intelligible and moving to crowds of unobservant unreflecting people to whom real life means nothing.

To awaken human emotion is the highest level of art.

There is still consciousness in hip hop.

Art should create an experience.

The great end of all arts is to make an impression on the imagination and the feeling. The imitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes it fails and something else succeeds.

If the mystical lovers of the arts, who consider all criticism dissection and all dissection destruction of enjoyment, thought logically, an exclamation like "Goodness alive!" would be the best criticism of the most deserving work of art. There are critiques which say nothing but that, only they do so more extensively.

I think it's the strength of her music, using art to make a statement. I think it really is. It was not a cheap gift. The gift was an expensive gift for Nina [Simone]. Diamonds are expensive. Her music was expensive. She paid for it, but I think it's her greatest gift.

Art disturbs, science reassures.