Chuck Close Quotes

84 quotes in 1080 categories

• There's something Zen-like about the way I work - it's like raking gravel in a Zen Buddhist garden.
• I knew from the age of five what I wanted to do. The one thing I could do was draw. I couldn't draw that much…
• You know, the way art history is taught, often there's nothing that tells you why the painting is great. The description of a lousy painting…
• The reason I don't like realist, photorealist, neorealist, or whatever, is that I am as interested in the artificial as I am in the real.
• In life you can be dealt a winning hand of cards and you can find a way to lose, and you can be dealt a…
• Like any corporation, I have the benefit of the brainpower of everyone who is working for me. It all ends up being my work, the…
• If the bottom dropped out of the market and the artist was not going to sell anything, he or she will keep working, and the…
• I learned you could suffer a terrible tragedy and still be happy again.
• Paintings can make you cry and it's just **colored dirt**.
• If you're overwhelmed by the size of a problem, break it down into smaller pieces.
• Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of…
• I never said the camera was truth. It is, however, a more accurate and more objective way of seeing.
• Having a routine, knowing what to do, gives me a sense of freedom and keeps me from going crazy. It's calming.
• The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for…
• Once I started working with the Polaroid, I would take a shot and if that shot was good, then I'd move the model and change…
• I don't believe in inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. Some of the time you know you're cooking, and the rest of the time, you just…
• I did some pastels and I did other pieces in which there was just basically one color per square, and then they would get bigger…
• I love sculpture, and minimal sculpture is really my favorite stuff, but I wasn't very good at it, and I don't think in a three-dimensional…
• I only use three primaries, so the nice thing is I can't have favorite colors.
• Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so…

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