“A great poet to me is a person who can describe a painting in such ways that even a person with closed eyes can feel the pain of the artist.”

We feel so much and remember so little.

Sometimes forever is kept in a heartbeat of a second.

No love defines us as much as the losses we have made in its name.

Changes are important they are like the rain who washes away dead flowers to make space for new ones.

Sometimes I only fall in love with the moment itself not the people or places in it.

To know why you fell in love will never bring you back up.

To set free my ideas while the world was still building a cage was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.

The only mistake about love is that life can’t remember it and the heart won’t find it.

My soul will forever be a home for your heart in a world of temporary love.

Love will leave you at some point but how it left will always stay.

Don’t let the scars on your heart define the way you love.

Love is like a wild rose; the thorns will only make your heart bleed if you touch it without care.

The edges of our heart hold the most beautiful memories.

Sometimes truth is a kind of love not many hearts can bear.

We made a home for our wishes in the stars; while forgetting they were meant to be only the beginning.

An eternity caught within a feeling is called love.

What people don’t understand is that how you are as an artist depends on how you are emotionally.

It makes me sad when I see artists who come alive when they go onstage, because, gee, I really come alive when I’m home.

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you’re doing. If you’re not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

You can tell an honest artist from one who’s just given all their songs.

I love my body. I’m very much OK with it. I don’t think artists are ever the ones who have the problem with their weight, it is other people.

The center of the stage is where I am.

I don’t have stylistic loyalty. That’s why people perceive me changing all the time. But there is a real continuity in my subject matter. As an artist of artifice, I do believe I have more integrity than any one of my contemporaries.

Zhang Yimou is an artist. Sometimes we did only two or three shots a day because we were waiting for the sun.