Sara Aridi and Peter Libbey

“If a song’s about something I’ve experienced or that could’ve happened to me, it’s good. But if it’s alien to me, I couldn’t lend anything to it. Because that’s what soul is about — just living and having to get along.”

Singer, born 1942

“The epithet American-Jewish writer has no meaning for me. If I’m not an American, I’m nothing.”

Author, born 1933

“When you are faced with the possibility of an early death, it makes you realize that life is worth living and that there are a lot of things you want to do.”

Physicist and author, born 1942

“Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.”

Playwright, born 1927

“There are three ways to make it in Hollywood. You can become an ‘actor’ — a guy with things standing out in his neck — or you can become a personality, or you can become a star. I always wanted to be all three.”

Actor, born 1936

“Some people like to paint trees. I like to paint love. I find it more meaningful than painting trees.”

Artist, born 1928

“I get my energy, I think, from being afraid to choreograph, being afraid to fail.”

Choreographer, born 1930

“I wanted the reader to feel we were all friends, that we were sharing some private fun that the outside world wasn’t aware of.”

Author and publisher, born 1922

“I think surprise is a wonderful emotion.”

Magician, actor and author, born 1946

Unhappiness where’s when I was young And we didn’t give a damn ‘Cause we were raised To see life as fun and take it if we can

— Dolores O’Riordan, “Ode to My Family,” the Cranberries, 1994

Musician, born 1971

“The kitchen at best is like a submarine or pirate group. It’s very high pressure, and a sense of humor is absolutely necessary.”

Chef and journalist, born 1956

“Acting’s fun, but life’s more important."

Actress, born 1948

“I recognized what I always look for in a true artist’s work, which is quality of technique, of ideas — and a unique, personal vocabulary of form."

Art dealer, born 1933

“It never came to mind: ‘Maybe I’m not good enough.’ I never thought like that. I always thought, ‘Yes, I am good enough,’ or ‘I can be good enough.'"

Musician, born 1969

“The more you create, the more you realize that it’s about more than just making good songs.”

Rapper, born 1992

“What I am doing is creating a language. A different American language.”

Musician, born 1929

Architect, born 1925

“When I thought of making a film in any country but mine, I found I could only do it in the United States. In any other country you are always a foreigner. Here, after one week you are an American."

Director, born 1932

“I was immersed in music from the beginning, and it never occurred to me that not everybody thought it was the most important thing in life.”

Composer, born 1952

“Casting is sort of like looking at paintings. You don’t know what you’ll like, but you recognize it when you see it."

Producer, born 1943

“I thought nonfiction gave one a chance to explore the world, the other world, the world one didn’t know fully."

Author, born 1932

“Music is part of life. It is not the real life. I belong to that first: family, children. The important things.”

Singer, born 1933

“Singing, to me, is such a healing thing. It’s just part of my body; it’s part of what I do."

Actress, born 1960

“The myth was that because you were black that you could not do classical dance. I proved that to be wrong.”

Dancer, born 1934

“Simplicity of shape does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience."

Artist, born 1931

Many of the artists who died this year made us laugh and cry and look at the world in new, myriad ways. Here is a tribute to some of the most notable of them, in their own words.

Artists We Lost in 2018, in Their Words

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Sara Aridi and Peter Libbey

Articles written by the author

Artists We Lost in 2018, in Their Words

Artists We Lost in 2018, in Their Words