Quotes by David Hockney

“The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know youre an artist.”

“Artists can color the sky red because they know its blue. Those of us who arent artists must color things the way they really are or people might think were stupid.”

“Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”

“The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

“Art has to move you and design does not, unless its a good design for a bus.”

“Television is becoming a collage -- there are so many channels that you move through them making a collage yourself. In that sense, everyone sees something a bit different.”

“Always live in the ugliest house on the street - then you dont have to look at it”

“We grow small trying to be great.”

“Anything simple always interests me.”

“A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.”

“If we are to change our world view, images have to change. The artist now has a very important job to do. Hes not a little peripheral figure entertaining rich people, hes really needed.”

“It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work.”

“No theoretician, no writer on art, however interesting he or she might be, could be as interesting as Picasso. A good writer on art may give you an insight to Picasso, but, after all, Picasso was there first.”

I had always planned to make a large painting of the early spring, when the first leaves are at the bottom of the trees, and they seem to float in space in a wonderful way. But the arrival of spring cant be done in one picture.

Im interested in all kinds of pictures, however they are made, with cameras, with paint brushes, with computers, with anything.

Im a very early riser, and I dont like to miss that beautiful early morning light.

I draw flowers every day and send them to my friends so they get fresh blooms every morning.

A lot of people, given the chance, would blow up everything, and you and me.

What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing. You wouldnt be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.

Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it.