From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Art is a vocation for me, not a career, not a job… you wouldn't say to a nun. 'so, how did you get into God?'
Had I not defended it and stood by it, I think it could have disappeared into history- but because I protected it, stood up for it, believed in it and understood why it existed and what it had done? That's why it still remains.
There's a moment when you look at good art when time changes… It's as if time no longer exists, becomes longer, or is suspended. There's a moment of reverie when you're fully immersed in something apart from yourself. One experiences this sometimes in meditation. These inexplicable, wonderful and mysterious experiences we have never leave us.
I think the fundamental thing about art is that it's a place where you can be honest about the human condition without having to be practical about it.
Art is a universal communicator, it is one of the ways that allows me to engage with audiences that might not otherwise think about what we're doing in space every day that's helping improve life here on Earth. And it's a way to help them consider the view from space and do a little bit of Earthling and Earth appreciation.
Everything is just crystal-clear and glowing. Our planet just glows with all the colours you know Earth to be made of, but in a way, that's almost transparent, iridescent. Seeing our planet from space is so much more than a visual experience, I think it's about feeling it, I think it really is about having a kind of spiritual connection to it, that you feel. Total awe, humbling.
Honesty! It has a greater share of integrity than most pop phenomenon- and consistently. They coined an expression early, that people had this attitude of '…keeping it real…'. People always said they do art, but they don't do art for money… what was real was that they wanted to get ahead- so their poetry reflected what was in their hearts.
an object must be useful before being beautiful.
You asked why movies have become so popular, I'm going to tell you why, it's because the images move… They're not static. I could stare at a Van-Gogh for hours, but I sit in a theatre and the images move. As the frames move and tell a story, it is that movement which emotionally connects you.