Dale Carnegie

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.

The role of a museum of modern art is to make a good selection and identify what we believe to be the coming movements, and that requires taste.

In the field of art, to be able to have lunch with Kirk Varnedoe is thrilling. I met him at Si and Victoria Newhouse’s dinner one night. Barnett Newman’s widow was there. That’s the part of me that’s a fan. Like when I was a kid and went to the Brooklyn Paramount. Well, my interest has expanded, and it’s not just rock-and-roll.

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.

Bad artists imitate, great artists steal.

There is only 1 difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.

The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.

Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.

One of the things about creativity is you can be in denial about these things. When I found out I had cancer, there were four hours in which I was pounding my head on the marble kitchen top saying, “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it.” But then I felt as if this little army in uniform was flooding me. They had come to help me fight it. I felt really strong about it after that. It was one of the strongest periods of my life.

If you believe in your art and you love what you do, that energy will go out and people will respond.

I cry out for order and find it only in art.

Mother’s interest in contemporary American artists emerged during the 1920s.

Good art will speak to you if you give it a chance.

Can anybody be given creativity? No. Only equipment to develop it if it’s in them in the first place.

Playing with freedom can only come after a certain amount of foundational study.

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.