Quotes from James Turrell

Usually we are illuminating things instead of looking at the light itself. But I like this quality of the light being the revelation.

I wanted to deal with light directly rather than with paint.

It's difficult for people to visualize from my drawings what it's going to be, so I often find myself talking them into things that they go along with, and when they see what's been made, they are surprised.

We use the vocabulary of light to describe a spiritual experience.

There are very few religious experiences that aren't explained using the vocabulary of light.

In a way, light unites the spiritual world and the ephemeral, physical world. People frequently talk about spiritual experiences using the vocabulary of light: Saul on the road to Damascus, near-death experiences, samadhi or the light-filled void of Buddhist enlightenment.

I don't want you looking at the light fixture; I want you looking at where light goes. But more than that, I'm interested in the effect of light upon you and your perceptions.

I'm working to bring celestial objects like the sun and moon into the spaces that we inhabit.

I am interested in the physicality of light itself.

To some degree, to control light, I have to have a way to form it, so I use form almost like the stretcher bar of a canvas.

I don't know if I believe in art. I certainly believe in light.

At Roden Crater, I was interested in taking the cultural artifice of art out into the natural surround. I wanted the work to be enfolded in nature in such a way that light from the sun, moon and stars empowered the spaces. I wanted to bring culture to the natural surround as if one was designing a garden.

I look at light as a material. It is physical. It is photons. Yes, it exhibits wave behavior, but it is a thing.

This wonderful elixir of light is the thing that actually connects the immaterial with the material - that connects the cosmic to the plain everyday existence that we try to live in.

There was a time when I restored antique planes to support my art habit.

Planets' orbits are elliptical. It's a very pleasing shape.

It's possible to gather light that's older than our solar system.

The people in L.A. do orient themselves to light. I used to call it 'Tan Fascist Culture.' Everyone there is tanned, wears dark sunglasses, looks like a movie star even when they're not.

I apprehend light - I make events that shape or contain light.

There's traditionally been a large disconnection in contemporary art between the audience and the artist. Generally, audiences are looking towards what they like, and I can tell you, that's the last thing on an artist's mind.

I'm interested in light. It's a very direct, pragmatic, American, rather naive approach.

Each day is a different length of time and that gives a different length to the cusp between light and darkness or darkness and light.

I would describe Los Angeles as actually not having taste. In New York, there's taste. But you have to remember that taste is censorship. It's a form of restriction.

I always thought that people who live in the desert are a little crazy. It could be that the desert attracts that kind of person, or that after living there, you become that. It doesn't make much difference. But now I've done my 40 years in the desert.