David Hockney quotes - page 2

David Hockney is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, and photographer, recognized as one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century. His vibrant use of color and innovative explorations of perspective have transformed modern art. He continues to inspire with his creative versatility and embrace of new technologies in artistic practice. Here are 122 of his quotes:

Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make.

David Hockney

There are enough no smoking places now.

David Hockney

What I didn't know was I was deeply attracted to the big space.

David Hockney

Well, in Bradford I could say I was brought up in Bradford and Hollywood.

David Hockney

Cubism was an attack on the perspective that had been known and used for 500 years. It was the first big, big change. It confused people: they said, 'Things don't look like that!'

David Hockney

I think Picasso was, without doubt, the greatest portraitist of the 20th century, if not any other century.

David Hockney

Smoking calms me down. It's enjoyable. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life.

David Hockney

Shadows sometimes people don't see shadows. The Chinese of course never paint them in pictures, oriental art never deals with shadow. But I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny.

David Hockney

Yes, I did, I mean I painted er, in a kind of abstract expressionist way, because of course that was exciting.

David Hockney

The way we see things is constantly changing. At the moment the way we see things has been left a lot to the camera. That shouldn't necessarily be.

David Hockney

I made a photograph of a garden in Kyoto, the Zen garden, which is a rectangle. But a photograph taken from any one point will not show, well it shows a rectangle, but not with ninety degree angles.

David Hockney

But the moment you use an ordinary camera, you are not seeing the picture, remember, meaning, you had to remember what you've taken. Now you could see it of course, with a digital thing, but remember in 1982 you couldn't.

David Hockney

How difficult it is to learn not to see like cameras, which has had such an effect on us. The camera sees everything at once. We don't. There's a hierarchy. Why do I pick out that thing, that thing, that thing?

David Hockney

There's no doubt you smoke to calm yourself. I know I do. That's my decision about how I keep calm. I prefer that to Prozac. In fact I think it's healthier. I couldn't go to another New York party where they're all drinking water and on Prozac and telling you off for smoking.

David Hockney

Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.

David Hockney

I'm a bit claustrophobic, I know that now.

David Hockney

What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing. You wouldn't be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.

David Hockney

I'm a very early riser, and I don't like to miss that beautiful early morning light.

David Hockney

And then I went round the corner and there's a Van Gogh portrait, and you just think, well, this is another level. A higher level, actually. I love the Sargent, but it's not the level of Van Gogh.

David Hockney

I've started painting much more freely, and faster. I think it's working in the theatre that did it. You know what the Glyndebourne scene-painters said about my The Magic Flute? They said they had to wear sunglasses to paint it.

David Hockney

Interviewer: Love is certainly at the center of tolerance. They're intertwined, in a certain way. It helps you appreciate difference. Hockney: Yes. And that's probably why I do portraits. Everybody's different; they look different, and are different. Maybe deep, deep down we're all the same. But on the surface we seem to be different, don't we?

David Hockney

When conventions are old, there's quite a good reason, it's not arbitrary.

David Hockney