Quotes By David Hockney

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

The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.

People tell me they open my e-mails first, because they aren't demands and you don't need to reply. They're simply for pleasure.

I was 18 when I first visited London, I'm very provincial like that, but I must confess the moment I got to America I thought: This is the place. It was more open, with 24-hour cities and pubs and restaurants that didn't close.

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.

There are enough no smoking places now.

It's very British to go about to see something unusual and paint it.

Who would have thought that the telephone would bring back drawing?

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!'

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.