When you get to the point where you cheat for the sake of beauty, you’re an artist.

The line plays on the paradox that art often depends on deliberate departures from literal truth. “Cheat” can mean bending rules of representation—altering proportions, compressing time, inventing details, or simplifying reality—to achieve a more compelling aesthetic or expressive result. The quote suggests that artistry begins when one prioritizes beauty (or artistic effect) over strict fidelity, implying that creative transformation is not a moral failing but a defining craft skill. It also hints at modernist attitudes—common in early 20th‑century avant‑garde circles—that valued invention, distortion, and formal experimentation as routes to a deeper or more resonant kind of truth than mere accuracy.