QuoteProject
Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous, you don't want it.
Duke Ellington
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Art holds power and risk; its allure lies in its capacity to challenge and provoke thought.

In this quote, Duke Ellington suggests that art possesses an inherent danger that captivates audiences. It implies that art should provoke, challenge norms, and evoke deep emotional responses; when it becomes safe and predictable, it loses its significance and appeal, leading audiences to disengage from it.

Themes

ArtDangerousAttractionProvocationAppeal

In practice

Example use cases

A discussion on the role of art in societal change during a panel.

More from Duke Ellington

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
Duke EllingtonRead
Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.
Duke EllingtonRead
There is no art without intention.
Duke EllingtonRead
There is nothing to keeping a band together. You simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money!
Duke EllingtonRead
Gray skies are just clouds passing over.
Duke EllingtonRead
Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.
Duke EllingtonRead

Similar quotes

Color is one of the great things in the world that makes life worth living to me and as I have come to think of painting it is my efforts to create an equivalent with paint color for the world, life as I see it.
Georgia O'KeeffeRead
It is a great art to saunter !
Henry David ThoreauRead
You really, really, really have to love what you are going to do in theater because it is an unmerciful life. It's six days a week. It's eight performances a week. And that's doing the exact same thing over and over and over again.
Harvey FiersteinRead
The martini: the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet.
H. L. MenckenRead
My greatest debt will always be to the movie-going public of yesterday and today, without whose love and devotion I would have had no story to tell.
Gloria SwansonRead
Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book.
Victor HugoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Duke Ellington | QuoteProject