Christian Boltanski

We all die twice - once when we actually die and once when no one on earth recognizes our photograph.

— Christian Boltanski

When I was four or five years old, I heard a lot of stories about the Holocaust because both my parents were…

— Christian Boltanski

... in the eyes of its visitors, Venice has no reality of its own. Anyone visiting the place has already seen so…

— Christian Boltanski

The more you work, the less you exist. I believe (at least, I used to believe, because I no longer think this…

— Christian Boltanski

There are very few times in creation in your life. One time is when you become an adult, one time is when…

— Christian Boltanski

I think it is very important to know that we are going to die. Now we refuse the fact of dying. There…

— Christian Boltanski

In most of my photographic pieces I have manipulated the quality of the evidence that people assign to photography, in order to…

— Christian Boltanski

The fact that you were born means that there are no other children born because of you – you’ve killed them in…

— Christian Boltanski

I never take photographs myself. I don’t feel like a photographer, more like a recycler

— Christian Boltanski

The sole fact of having a school to train creative people is absolute lunacy... The idea of 'pedagogical vision' is ignoble, it…

— Christian Boltanski

It's pretentious to say, but my art is like a little Zen story, a story with a question mark at the end.…

— Christian Boltanski

We're painting the same people all our life - it's just the way we look at them that changes. If you experience…

— Christian Boltanski

I like looking at the finger of God. Why it takes one and not another, why this one or that one, why…

— Christian Boltanski

Photography is used to give evidence, and the evidence is always deceiving.

— Christian Boltanski

I think that all human activity is stupid. Artistic activity is also stupid, but you can see it more clearly.

— Christian Boltanski

Every time I ask questions about sex, I always end up asking questions about death.

— Christian Boltanski

The science about life is very optimistic. Every second, four people in the world die, and six are born. This is optimistic.

— Christian Boltanski

In science we see progress. In art there is no progress. In art the questions have always been the same. From the…

— Christian Boltanski

You are what you are because your parents made love at that exact moment, and if they made love one second after…

— Christian Boltanski

I was lucky to be born during the time of minimalism. I think I can be colder because of this. In form…

— Christian Boltanski

I've filled my whole life trying to preserve the memory of living, in the fight against dying. Perhaps the only thing I've…

— Christian Boltanski

The photo replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can't visualize them anymore, you only remember them through their…

— Christian Boltanski

Art-making is not about telling the truth but making the truth felt

— Christian Boltanski

I believe that at the beginning of the life of every artist there is some kind of trauma. We have a problem…

— Christian Boltanski

You are what you are because your parents made love at that exact moment, and if they made love one second after…

— Christian Boltanski