David Hockney Quotes

Never forget that it sometimes takes a foreigner's eye to capture Britain most clearly.

I tend to be a great optimist when it comes to the United States and the American way of life, I think precisely because I wasn't born into it.

Only the misfortune of exile can provide the in-depth understanding and the overview into the realities of the world.

In the perception of a tree we can distinguish the act of experiencing, or perceiving, from the thing experienced, or perceived.

I often find myself unsatisfied with books 'about' Indians because they are written from the viewpoint of non-Indians.

I think Anna and the King is a look at Asia from the Asian perspective, reflecting the Asian experience, which is very rare.

The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.

Literature offers not just a window into the culture of diverse regions, but also the society, the politics; it's the only place where we can keep track of ideas.

My wife is French, and so I get to see America through her eyes, which informs a lot of little moments. It means I can poke fun at very particular things about us.

American poetry is this country's greatest patrimony. It takes a stranger to see some things clearly. This is one of them, and I am that stranger.

When you go away, you see where you come from in a different light. I see Scotland, and the rest of Britain, as much more exotic than I used to.

It's been a good thing for me to try and understand America.

I love the fact that James Ivory made films about Britain, made 'Howards End' and 'The Remains of the Day,' or that Paul Thomas Anderson made 'Phantom Thread.' They're about Britishness, but they're from an American perspective. And I actually think they're fantastic in the way that they understand Britishness.

Like the way we get to know about the society of Korea, Iran, and other countries through their films, people will get to know about our country. Our films are a mirror of our society.

Nothing reveals more about the inner life of a people than their arts.

Cultivate an ever-continuous power of observation. Wherever you are, be always ready to make slight notes of postures, groups and incidents.

How do the stems connect to the roots?' 'Where is the mist coming from?' 'Why does one tree seem darker than another?' These questions are implicitly asked and answered in the process of sketching.

I believe that when you go into a gallery or a museum, the most powerful pieces are the ones that don't have the words in the corner that distract you from the larger piece.

I look on Sculpture as history. I do not think the Apollo and the Jove impossible in flesh and blood. Every trait the artist recorded in stone, he had seen in life, and better than his copy.

So the problem for the poetic artist or the photographer is the common problem of continuous attentiveness, continuous attempts to notice what he is noticing, continuous alertness to catch himself thinking or seeing, devotional attentiveness to the world he's moving through.

The key to understanding any people is in its art: its writing, painting, sculpture.

I wish everyone in this country could magically leave the country for six months and view the United States from the outside for six months, and I think you'd see a new perspective to the people of this country.

Sometimes it takes an outsider, someone with fresh eyes to see the truth.

The view from space is like having a globe on your desk -- it's a broadening experience.

When you understand a species' art, you understand that species.