William Saroyan on Art

"Art can no longer afford to be contemptuous of politics, and it appears to be time politics took a little instruction from art."

"Art and religion would not be able to stop the war any more than they would be able to stop tomorrow."

"Their singing wasn't particularly good, but the feeling with which they sang was not bad at all."

"Art and politics must move closer together. Reflection and action must be equally valid in good men if history is not to take one course and art an other."

"In the tradition of popular oratory, Trash started a talk at random, moved confidently ahead in no particular direction, and, although he spoke very clearly, said nothing."

"At his best, things do not happen to the artist; he happens to them."

"Wars, for us, are either inevitable, or created. Whatever they are, they should not wholly vitiate art. What art needs is greater men, and what politics needs is better men."

"All great art has madness, and quite a lot of bad art has it, too."

"The weakness of art is that great poems do not ennoble politics, as they certainly should, and the trouble with politics is that they inspire poets only to mockery and scorn."

"Art comes from the world, belongs to it, can never escape from it."

"The role of art is to make a world which can be inhabited."

"There is only good and bad art."

"Art is what is irresistible."