Quotes from Andy Goldsworthy

Art is not a career - it's a life.

Confrontation is something that I accept as part of the project though not its purpose.

I did tests on small stones before collecting and committing myself to the larger ones.

The difference between a theatre with and without an audience is enormous. There is a palpable, critical energy created by the presence of the audience.

One of the beauties of art is that it reflects an artist's entire life. What I've learned over the past 30 years is really beginning to inform what I make. I hope that process continues until I die.

Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.

Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.

Time gives growth, it gives continuity and it gives change. And in the case of some sculptures, time gives a patina to them.

My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made.

Stones are checked every so often to see if any have split or at worst exploded. An explosion can leave debris in the elements so the firing has to be abandoned.

The hardened mass of liquid stones had much stronger qualities than those which had simply torn. The skin remained a recognisable part of the molten stone.

Ideas must be put to the test. That's why we make things, otherwise they would be no more than ideas. There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realisation. I've had what I thought were great ideas that just didn't work.

Not being able to touch is sometimes as interesting as being able to touch.

If you've ever come across a tree that you've lived with for many years and then one day it's blown over, there's incredible shock and violence about that.

I love the winter. Well, I love all the seasons, but the winter is possibly one of the most intense.

Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.

A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels.

Some of the snowballs have a kind of animal energy. Not just because of the materials inside them, but in the way that they appear caged, captured.

The first stone was just tried in the spirit of experimentation. The opening of the stone was far more interesting than the drawing that I had done on it.

People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and on the other, the city.

My sculpture can last for days or a few seconds - what is important to me is the experience of making. I leave all my work outside and often return to watch it decay.

When I make a work, I often take it to the very edge of its collapse, and that's a very beautiful balance.

If I had to describe my work in one word, that word would be time.

Understanding the materials I work with... gives me a deeper understanding of my place. And it's helped me make sense of the changes that are happening to me as I grow older.