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!'

Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.

I go and see anything that's visually new, any technology that's about picture-making. The technology won't make the pictures different, but someone using it will.

What I didn't know was I was deeply attracted to the big space.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 can't be done in one picture.