Quotes from David Hockney

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.

The video camera dominates art. It's a bore, it makes everything look a bit the same. If you look at things with a pencil and paper in your hand, you are going to see far more.

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.

I went to art school actually when I was sixteen years old.

I've never been interested in, much in the politics of the art world, it doesn't interest me.

All painting, no matter what you are painting, is abstract in that it's got to be organized.

People criticized me for my photography. They said it's not art.

I'm convinced that technology and art go together - and always have, for centuries.

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

Loads of people, particularly artists, hate pretty pictures. Now I've never met anyone who didn't like a pretty face.

I'm not antisocial. I like people.

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

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

It's all one to me: opera, painting, drawing, faxes.

When you're very young, you suddenly find this marvellous freedom. It's quite exciting, and you're prepared to do anything.

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

Future art that is based on appearances won't look like the art that's gone before. Even revivals of a period are not the same.