Quotes By David Hockney

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.

I was always struck by how Picasso had no interest in music.

I generally only paint people I know, I'm not a flatterer really.

I grew up in austerity in the 1940s and 1950s.

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!'

Like people, trees are all individuals.

On the iPhone I tended to draw with my thumb. Whereas the moment I got to the iPad, I found myself using every finger.

I've always wanted to be able to paint the dawn.

In my old age, I'll be in L.A.

Laugh a lot. It clears the lungs.

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

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

Most artists work all the time, they do actually, especially good artists, they work all the time, what else is there to do? I mean you do.

I haven't stopped painting or drawing - I've just added another medium.

Of course you can still paint landscape - it's not been worn out.

I stay up nights and fiddle with my opera designs. It's a bit obsessive. That's why I can't do it all the time.

Photographs aren't accounts of scrutiny. The shutter is open for a fraction of a second.

I don't value prizes of any sort.

The photograph isn't good enough. It's not real enough.

I'm always excited by the unlikely, never by ordinary things.

I see the iPad as a wonderful new drawing medium, but I am at a loss as to how to make it pay.

I think my father would have liked to have been an artist, actually. But I think he didn't quite have perhaps the drive or, I don't know, I mean he had a family to bring up I suppose.

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.

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.

All painters are interested in photography to a certain extent.

I avoid the public because the English public is too aggressive these days for me.

I'm not antisocial. I like people.

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

All film directors, even the ones using 3-D today, want you to look at what they chose.

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