Quotes from Bruce Nauman

I think humor is used a lot of the time to keep people from getting too close. Humor side-steps and shifts the meaning.

What I am really concerned about is what art is supposed to be - and can become.

Did you stop because it was good enough, or could have done more - but then maybe ruined it too? Sometimes you finish because you've gone too far.

But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.

I'll talk. You'll listen.

But part of the enjoyment I take in it is finding the most efficient way to do it, which doesn't mean the corrections aren't made. I like to have a feeling of the whole task before I start, even if it changes.

In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.

A good teacher is like a good artist. They go right to the most difficult part of whatever's going on.

If you choose the wrong questions and you proceed, you still get a result, but it's not interesting.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

And so I put down some of the things that he said, about keeping your tools sharpened and not letting them lie on the ground where they get hurt or get abused and dirty and can't find them. And some thoughts about how his father used to do things.

I don't like to think about being an influence. It's embarrassing.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

What I am really concerned about is what art is supposed to be - and can become.

The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.

Generalised anger and frustration is something that gets you in the studio, and gets you to work - though it's not necessarily evident in anything that's finished.

I get the feeling that sometimes the ideas work very well when you're doing them in the studio alone.

Sometimes I just have a few people over to see the new work, and I think it works better than in a museum situation, where the public is just presented with a large area.

I like to combine different aspects in my work, to cover different areas, but I do see them as being separate.

In this case we're building a corner to stretch a fence and hang a gate. It had a real purpose in the ranch here. I needed to do this. But at the same time, it made a beautiful structure.

If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.

In the studio, I don't do a lot of work that requires repetitive activity. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and then try to find the most efficient way to get what I want, whether it's making a drawing or a sculpture, or casting plaster or whatever.

I like to use my hands and make things... It might seem pretty stupid or pointless but that doesn't matter... some of the most interesting work is the stuff that starts like that - out of a raw need for activity.