Richard Foreman Quotes

One doesn't make art for other people, even though I am very concerned with the viewer.

I, in the end, make art for myself.

My muse changes all the time because I think every designer is a bit of a muse for themselves in a way - they just don't want to say it.

My greatest achievement is being able to write records that are real snapshots of what's going on in my life. I won't repeat myself for the sake of commerce, or to please other people.

I want the subject to be in control. Because they will give me something I couldn't possibly know about them.

Life is the most versatile thing under the sun; and in the pursuit of life and character the author who works in a groove works in blinkers.

I don't believe that artists really are interested in money. That's not the motivation for art.

I work from a personal place, and the work has personal meaning for me.

Everyone thinks these are self-portraits but they aren't meant to be. I just use myself as a model because I know I can push myself to extremes, make each shot as ugly or goofy or silly as possible.

I am always writing to myself.

I don't write for a particular audience. I work as an artist, and I think the audience of one, which is the self, and I have to satisfy myself as an artist. So I always say that I write for the same people that Picasso painted for. I think he painted for himself.

I'm always consciously trying to make what I feel is missing.

I stumbled onto the best profession to heal my childhood: the only one that lets you release and express whatever is ugly and messy and beautiful about your life. We're in the business of creating human beings. The more we spew, and the more honestly we do it, the better. Try that on Wall Street.

I feel like my music at least allows me to release the other side of me, a more vulnerable and sensitive side.

Street artists want to add something to the environment. They consider the audience, whereas graffiti writers don't care about anyone except themselves, they do it purely for the kick.

I do make films for personal reasons.

For me, filmmaking is not exactly a career. I was never in it for Hollywood or anything. My films are markers of where I am in life, where I am in my head. So that's what I'm working on, and I try to keep things in proportion - life and filmmaking. One feeds into the other.

I'm not really interested in myself in my writing. I can't see myself in the songs, even though I know different parts of me are there.

In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could to any person; I create myself.

I think if we didn't contradict ourselves, it would be awfully boring. It would be tedious to be alive.

I don't think my approach to acting is all necessarily in service of the character. I think, selfishly, I've put it in service of myself, my perspective on the world and helping my life.

I'm doing things that are more artistic again, more close to the material that I love. I don't disparage those things that I did. They're just not as much reflective of who I am.

My physical transformations - like changing my hair - are usually a reflection of what's inspiring me at the moment.

Everything we know by heart enriches us and helps us find ourselves. If it should get in the way of finding ourselves, it is because we have no personality.

Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life.