"People often say that 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves."

Salma Hayak (2 September 1966), Mexican-born actress.

"Love. Watch for it coming! It enters the house of the body without your seeking."

Allen Ginsberg
(3 June 1926 - 5 April 1997), American poet.

“The most attractive are not those who allow us to kiss them at once (we soon feel ungrateful) or those who never allow us to kiss them (we soon forget them), but those who coyly lead us between the two extremes.”

Alain de Botton (20 December 1969), Swiss writer of essayistic books.

"I am definitely the boss. I organize the trip, I pay for the gas, the food, the motels. I write the checks and I'm the one that, when we get busted for being naked, raises his hand and says 'This is all my fault.'"

Ryan McGinley (born 1977), NYC photographer.

"When stereotypes attempt to take control of their bodies, they can only do what they are made of and they are made of pathological attitudes of the Old South. Therefore, racist stereotypes occurring in my art can only partake of psychotic activities."

Kara Walker (26 November 1969), contemporary American artist.

"I love the way in which I make up dances. It's a complicated way and the product is usually clear. Clear and simple. I don't need everybody to know that there are all of these fabulous things going on. If you can see it, that's wonderful."

Mark Morris (29 August 1956), modern dancer, choreographer and director.

"I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back."

Erica Jong (26 March 1942, in New York City), an American author and educator.

"We all have these tendencies in us that could go this way or that. I think that's the real key in writing. To look at a character without judgment."

Paul Haggis (10 March 1953), Canadian screenwriter, producer and film director.

"I'm very happy to hear that my work inspires writers and painters. It's the most beautiful compliment, the greatest reward. Art should always be an exchange."

Nick Cave
(22 September 1957), Australian-born rocker, writer, and occasional actor.

"Art is a bang!"

Tarō Okamoto (岡本太郎, Okamoto Tarō)
(26 February 1911 - 7 January 1996), Japanese artist noted for his abstract and avant-garde paintings and sculpture.

"I sound confident because I don’t think it’s mine. I feel like I’ve been used as a vessel by the greater aspects of the universe. I feel spoken through."

Saul Williams (29 February 1972), American writer, actor and musician.

"The cynicism that you have is not your real soul."

Yoko Ono Lennon
(18 February 1933), Japanese artist and musician.

"The First Amendment has the same role in my life as a citizen and a writer as the sun has in our ecosystem."

Michael Chabon (24 May 1963), American author.

"The more I do it, the more I'm like, 'No wonder so many actors have
problems!'..."

Ellen Philpotts-Page (21 February 1987), Canadian actress.

"The biggest mistake in student films is that they are usually cast so badly, with friends and people the directors know. Actually you can cover a lot of bad direction with good acting."

Brian De Palma (11 September 1940), American film director.

"Last winter in Paris, I saw my boyfriend with another girl, so it was either me or the guitar, so I broke it."

Cat Power (born Charlyn Marie Marshall, 21 January 1972), American singer/songwriter.

"I believe music acts as a shield, surrounding us with protective energy, since it bathes you in shimmering light that deflects away negativity..."

Bettina Werner (Milan, 1965), artist now living in NYC, created The Salt Queen Foundation, developed in the early 1980s.

"Music should be your escape."

Missy Elliott
(1 July 1971), an American rapper, singer, songwriter, MC, and record producer.

"We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds."

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
(29 Jan. 1860 - 15 July 1904), Russian short story writer and playwright.

“I would do anything Tim [Burton] wanted me to. You know - have sex with an aardvark... I would do it.”

Johnny Depp
(9 June 1963), an American actor who favors portraying eccentric characters.

"I felt early on I wasn't going to be a respectable citizen."

Cormac McCarthy
(20 July 1933), Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.

"If I wasn't Bob Dylan, I'd probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself."

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, 24 May 1941), American singer/songwriter, author, musician, and poet.

"I don't care if you think I'm racist. I just want you to think I'm thin."

Sarah Kate Silverman
(1 Dec. 1970), American comedian, writer and actress.

"But I believe above all that I wanted to build the palace of my memory, because my memory is my only homeland."

Anselm Kiefer
(8 March 1945), German painter and sculptor.

"I pray that there will be more roles for bigger girls. I pray that the role of the love interest, the beautiful, sexy girl, will be played by a plus-size woman."

Nikki Blonsky
(9 Nov. 1988), American actress/singer, played Tracy Turnblad in movie Hairspray.

"What I like about playing America is you can be pretty sure you're not going to get hit with a full can of beer when you're singing and I really enjoy that!"

Joe Strummer (John Graham Mellor, 21 Aug. 1952 - 22 Dec. 2002), co-founder and lead singer of The Clash and The Mescaleros.

"I think God is a callous bitch not making me a lesbian. I'm deeply disappointed by my sexual interest in men."

Diamanda Galás (23 August 1955), American-born avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist and composer.

"The idea of time is so peculiar. Dig, here we are, in a moment that will never happen again."

James Rosenquist (29 Nov. 1933), acclaimed American pop artist.

"I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them."

Diane Arbus
(14 March 1923 - 26 July 1971), American photographer.