David Hockney famous quotes

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

#Listening

California is always in my mind.
-- David Hockney

#California #Mind

When you are older, you realise that everything else is just nothing compared to painting and drawing.
-- David Hockney

#Drawing #Painting #Realising

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.
-- David Hockney

#Cheating #Art #Sake

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

#Thinking #Portraits #Levels

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

#Fake People #Work #Believe

As you get older, it gets a bit harder to keep the spontaneity in you, but I work at it.
-- David Hockney

#Spontaneity #Harder

You must plan to be spontaneous.
-- David Hockney

#Planning #Spontaneous #Be Spontaneous

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

#Art #People #Trying

Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer and clearer still, until your eyes ache.
-- David Hockney

#Eye #Drawing #Ache

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

#Beautiful #Morning #Light

Just because I’m cheeky, doesn’t mean I’m not serious
-- David Hockney

#Mean #Serious #Cheeky

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

#Photography #Mean #Thinking

I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I’m greedy for an exciting life.
-- David Hockney

#Thinking #Greedy #Burden

Always live in the ugliest house on the street - then you don't have to look at it.
-- David Hockney

#Home #House #Looks

The thing with high-tech is that you always end up using scissors.
-- David Hockney

#Statistics #Ends #Scissors

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.
-- David Hockney

#Mean #Artist #Good Art

I can get excitement watching rain on a puddle. And then I paint it. Now, I admit, there are not too many people who would find that exciting. But I would. And I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is.
-- David Hockney

#Rain #People #Want

In the end nobody knows how it's done — how art is made. It can't be explained. Optical devices are just tools. Understanding a tool doesn't explain the magic of creation. Nothing can.
-- David Hockney

#Art #Understanding #Magic

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

#Unusual #Paint #British

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

#Landscape #Paint #Worn

It's all right if you don't mind looking at the world from the point of view of a paralyzed Cyclops—for a split second.
-- David Hockney

#Views #Mind #World

The moment I got a very big studio, everything took off.
-- David Hockney

#Moments #Bigs

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

#Real #Good Enough #Enough

If you see the world as beautiful, thrilling and mysterious, as I think I do, then you feel quite alive.
-- David Hockney

#Beautiful #Passion #Thinking

I was aware that the teaching of drawing was being stopped almost 30 years ago. And I always said, 'The teaching of drawing is the teaching of looking.' A lot of people don't look very hard.
-- David Hockney

#Teaching #Years #Drawing

All art is contemporary, if it's alive, and if it's not alive, what's the point of it?
-- David Hockney

#Art #Alive #Art Is

Enjoyment of the landscape is a thrill.
-- David Hockney

#Thrill #Landscape #Enjoyment

Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus.
-- David Hockney

#Art #Moving #Design

With watercolour, you can't cover up the marks. There's the story of the construction of the picture, and then the picture might tell another story as well.
-- David Hockney

#Cover Ups #Stories #Might

Anything simple always interests me.
-- David Hockney

#Simple #Simplicity #Interest

Laugh a lot. It clears the lungs.
-- David Hockney

#Laughing

I am constantly preoccupied with how to remove distance so that we can all come closer together, so that we can all begin to sense we are the same, we are one.
-- David Hockney

#Distance #Humanity #Together

The urge to draw must be quite deep within us, because children love to do it.
-- David Hockney

#Children #Children Love #Draws