Leon Trotsky

Fascism is a caricature of Jacobinism.

Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.

Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain – at least in a poor country like Russia – and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect.

Workers – men and women – of all countries, place yourselves under the banner of the Fourth International. It is the banner of your approaching victory!

Learning carries within itself certain dangers because out of necessity one has to learn from one’s enemies.

Against my protests a mausoleum was built on the Red Square, a monument unbecoming and offensive to the revolutionary consciousness.

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

I don’t want to put too many boxes on it because the work speaks louder than words.

All art inspires me. Life inspires me. The art of life, thus my own art.

She opened up a book of poems and handed it to me written by an Italian poet from the 13th century and every one of them words rang true and glowed like burning coal pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you.

I’m just an individual who doesn’t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I’m working for me.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

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

The arts are at the center of a nation’s purpose and a test of civilization.

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.

There is nothing new… everything has roots in the past.

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.

An artist can only be evaluated after he’s dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

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

Truth exists in art.

To this day I’m really not sure if I was playing Ziggy [Stardust] or if Ziggy was exaggerated aspects of my own personality. A fair amount of psychological baggage was undoubtedly coming out through the character. Because I felt awkward and nervous and inadequate with myself, it felt easier to be somebody else.