Quotes from Charles Saatchi

I don't buy art just to make artists happy any more than I want to make them sad if I sell their work.

I hate to sound like a romantic adolescent, but I believe artists don't generally see art as a career choice; they simply can't overcome their desire to make art, and will live on little income for as long as they have to, before they start to sell their work - or give up and get a paying job.

I have never cared enough about money to worry about spending it, and have been fortunate to make enough to be spoiled rotten.

Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on.

There are no rules about investment. Sharks can be good. Artist's dung can be good. Oil on canvas can be good.

Art collectors are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. What matters and survives is the art. I buy art that I like. I buy it to show it off in exhibitions. Then, if I feel like it, I sell it and buy more art.

Some people in the art world bemoan the hedge fund millionaires spending freely to acquire ostentatious displays of wealth and coolth for their giddily chic designer duplexes. Others bemoan art being treated as a commodity. But most of the bemoaning is because the art world is stuffed full of bemoaners, bemoaning about everything.

I have spent too long being able to manipulate the answers I want from market research to rely upon its findings any more than I do weather forecasts.

Artistic credentials are au courant in the important business of being seen as cultured, elegant and, of course, stupendously rich.

My aim in life isn't so much the pursuit of happiness as the happiness of pursuit.

Many people cycle or swim to keep trim. But if swimming is so good for the figure, how do you explain whales?

I find the theatre faintly embarrassing for the actors performing on stage. It seems rather showy-off in an undignified way.

It's obvious nonsense, but it makes nice people feel good about themselves to do their bit for the planet. It's vanity of a grotesque kind to believe that mankind, and our 'carbon footprint', has more impact on the future of Earth than Nature, which bends our planet to its will, as it sees fit.

There are no hidden depths to me.

Few people in contemporary art demonstrate much curiosity. The majority spend their days blathering on, rather than trying to work out why one artist is more interesting than another, or why one picture works and another doesn't.

The art critics on some of Britain's newspapers could as easily have been assigned gardening or travel, and been cheerfully employed for life.

I can't write. I can handle bits of simple-minded advert copy or a poster slogan, so answering questions is about all I'm good for.

I have asked to have no funeral, and no memorial service. I hate other people's and would certainly not appreciate my own.

I spoil my children rotten and hope to leave them enough so they can do the same to theirs.

If you can't take a good kicking, you shouldn't parade how much luckier you are than other people.

I don't know very many people in the art world, only socialise with the few I like, and have little time to gnaw my nails with anxiety about any criticism I hear about.

By and large, talent is in such short supply that mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered.

If, like me, you have many reasons to be less than secure and self-assured, and like me, you are far from stable even on your best days, don't for a moment imagine a psychotherapist will be of more help than a physiotherapist.

I've heard that almost all the people crowding around the big art openings barely look at the work on display and are just there to hobnob. Nothing wrong with that, except that none of them ever come back to look at the art - but they will tell everyone, and actually believe, that they have seen the exhibition.