David Hockney quotes - page 2

But slowly I began to use cameras and then think about what it was that was going on. It took me a long time, I mean I actually played with cameras and photography for about 20 years. (David Hockney)
Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make. View quote
David Hockney
There are enough no smoking places now. View quote
David Hockney
What I didn't know was I was deeply attracted to the big space. View quote
David Hockney
Well, in Bradford I could say I was brought up in Bradford and Hollywood. View quote
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!' View quote
David Hockney
I think Picasso was, without doubt, the greatest portraitist of the 20th century, if not any other century. View quote
David Hockney
Smoking calms me down. It's enjoyable. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life. View quote
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. View quote
David Hockney
Yes, I did, I mean I painted er, in a kind of abstract expressionist way, because of course that was exciting. View quote
David Hockney
You had to be aware that I saw that photography was a mere episode in the history of the optical projection and when the chemicals ended, meaning the picture was fixed by chemicals, we were in a new era. (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. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
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? View quote
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. View quote
David Hockney
Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft. View quote
David Hockney
I'm a bit claustrophobic, I know that now. View quote
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. View quote
David Hockney
I'm a very early riser, and I don't like to miss that beautiful early morning light. View quote
David Hockney
Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus. (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. View quote
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. View quote
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? View quote
David Hockney
When conventions are old, there's quite a good reason, it's not arbitrary. View quote
David Hockney