Artists We Lost in 2018, in Their Words
Many of the artists who died this 12 months made us snort and cry and have a look at the world in new, myriad methods. Here is a tribute to among the most notable of them, in their very own phrases.
“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.”
— Aretha Franklin
Singer, born 1942 (Read the obituary.)
“The epithet American-Jewish writer has no meaning for me. If I’m not an American, I’m nothing.”
— Philip Roth
Author, born 1933 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Stephen Hawking
Physicist and author, born 1942 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Neil Simon
Playwright, born 1927 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Burt Reynolds
Actor, born 1936 (Read the obituary.)
“Some people like to paint trees. I like to paint love. I find it more meaningful than painting trees.”
— Robert Indiana
Artist, born 1928 (Read the obituary.)
“I get my energy, I think, from being afraid to choreograph, being afraid to fail.”
— Paul Taylor
Choreographer, born 1930 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Stan Lee
Author and publisher, born 1922 (Read the obituary.)
“I think surprise is a wonderful emotion.”
— Ricky Jay
Magician, actor and author, born 1946 (Read the obituary.)
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 (Read the obituary.)
“The kitchen at best is like a submarine or pirate group. It’s very high pressure, and a sense of humor is absolutely necessary.”
— Anthony Bourdain
Chef and journalist, born 1956 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Phyllis Kind
Art dealer, born 1933 (Read the obituary.)
“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.’”
— Roy Hargrove
Musician, born 1969 (Read the obituary.)
“The more you create, the more you realize that it’s about more than just making good songs.”
— Mac Miller
Rapper, born 1992 (Read the obituary.)
“What I am doing is creating a language. A different American language.”
— Cecil Taylor
Musician, born 1929 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Milos Forman
Director, born 1932 (Read the obituary.)
“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.”
— Oliver Knussen
Composer, born 1952 (Read the obituary.)
“Casting is sort of like looking at paintings. You don’t know what you’ll like, but you recognize it when you see it.”
— Steven Bochco
Producer, born 1943 (Read the obituary.)
“I thought nonfiction gave one a chance to explore the world, the other world, the world one didn’t know fully.”
— V.S. Naipaul
Author, born 1932 (Read the obituary.)
“Music is part of life. It is not the real life. I belong to that first: family, children. The important things.”
— Montserrat Caballé
Singer, born 1933 (Read the obituary.)
“Singing, to me, is such a healing thing. It’s just part of my body; it’s part of what I do.”
— Marin Mazzie
Actress, born 1960 (Read the obituary.)
“The myth was that because you were black that you could not do classical dance. I proved that to be wrong.”
— Arthur Mitchell
Dancer, born 1934 (Read the obituary.)
“Simplicity of shape does not necessarily equate with simplicity of experience.”
— Robert Morris
Artist, born 1931 (Read the obituary.)
“Theater saves people’s lives, and it’s wonderful.”
— Jan Maxwell
Actress, born 1956 (Read the obituary.)
“Screenplays are structure. That’s all they are. They are not art, they are carpentry.”
— William Goldman
Screenwriter, born 1931 (Read the obituary.)
“There are two of you — one who wants to write and one who doesn’t. The one who wants to write better keep tricking the one who doesn’t.”
— María Irene Fornés
Playwright, born 1930 (Read the obituary.)
“Part of the punk experience, for me, was that you could play to your strengths and make your weaknesses virtues.”
— Pete Shelley
Musician, born 1955 (Read the obituary.)
“I’m a firm believer that language and how we use language determines how we act, and how we act then determines our lives and other people’s lives.”
— Ntozake Shange
Playwright, born 1948 (Read the obituary.)
“Don’t shove me into your damn pigeonhole, where I don’t fit, because I’m all over. My tentacles are coming out of the pigeonhole in all directions.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin
Author, born 1929 (Read the obituary.)
“I don’t have a scrap more talent than so many actors in Chicago. I just happened to be blessed by being lucky.”
— John Mahoney
Actor, born 1940 (Read the obituary.)
“I’m a director. I’m a woman. But to classify man-directors, woman-directors — can’t we just say director?”
— Penny Marshall
Actress and director, born 1943 (Read the obituary.)
“Even if I lived a hundred lives, I still wouldn’t be exhausted.”
— Claude Lanzmann
Director and author, born 1925 (Read the obituary.)
“I found early in the game that for me there’s no use trying to blend in.”
— Tom Wolfe
Author, born 1930 (Read the obituary.)
