Art Quotes are quotes that I have either heard first hand, read or been told about that have illuminated my neurology.
"Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?"
Head of music videos Tim Nash in response to producer Juliette Larthe's question regarding what sort of skateboard she should buy her ten year old son, Academy offices, London 2003.
"In the end what makes communication - and logo designing in particular - so fascinating, is that even with focus groups, market research, and state-of-the-art branding specialists, hitting a bull's eye is still an art, not a science."
Designer, illustrator, filmmaker, copywriter and teacher Bob Gill, 2006
"I like lizards, they keep still."
Responsible senior academic Pete Nevin, 10/11/09.
"You've got all these brilliant craftsmen; really amazingly skilled people; truly the cream of their profession, all total masters of their art and then they're being led by this chubby, sweaty, infantile eunuch that's basically a puppet for the two executive producers and he's just really weak! He's wriggling around in the saddle having tantrums over the tiniest of decisions and it's just like uggh!! All that skill going to waste and I mean in six months time it's going to be on motorway garage shelves so it's just like......what's the point?"
A frustrated friend talking about the Hollywood film franchise he works on, 10/11/09
"A smashing school with no idea of a programme, in which the spare-time teachers did not burden us with their presence - most of the time we were left to develop by ourselves with no interference from above!"
Master typographer Piet Zwart talking about The School of Arts and Crafts in Amsterdam where he attended from 1902 - 1907.
"MAD was Bill's vehicle to kick the ass of his father and everything he represented."
Al Feldstein, the editor who ran MAD comics for thirty years talking about William M. Gaines who launched the company that started MAD - Entertaining Comics - from the detritus of a crumbling, minor publishing outfit he'd inherited from his dad.
"I always try to simplify - that's part of the fun: give me limitations, give me a budget, give me four colours rather than ten, that's when I start getting excited."
Jim Davis, 63, multimillionaire creator of cartoon cat 'Garfield' who get's up at 3.30am every day to draw his strips.
"I wanted to be a basketball player as my passion for this sport was just complete."
First year Graphic Design student Wilson Sanchez, from his introductory booklet. University of East London, 2008
"I prefer silence to putting on a CD. Listening to music doesn't relax me and I find it hard to concentrate when it's on. I have never bought a record in my life. I bought a Janet Jackson cassette once, but that was it. Music has never moved me. To be honest, I find it irritating."
40 year old pop star Anastacia who has sold over 20 million records.
"Everybody's trying to make an image, but we have different ways of getting at it."
Painter Euan Uglow, 2001
"This is genuinely the very worst work I have ever seen."
Comment made to designer Geoff Fowle about some of his illustrations whilst working at J. Walter Thompson
"Don't do what the buggers want: you're the boss and it's what they can't see that counts. Get them men in white coats and biros to sort out your technical problems, change the world."
Art and design teacher Alec Vickerman to the then fifteen year old designer Geoff Fowle.
"I've had one I remember that bit"
The Culture Show presenter Lauren Laverne chatting to Grace Jones who was telling her that co-producing her own album was "like having a baby and that to do that you need some sperm, etc."
"I'm constantly on the grind and expanding my territories each chance I get. No job's too small for me, no matter how big I get. I check everything's being properly marketed and promoted."
Multi millionaire US hop hop sensation Akon (real name Aliaune Thiam) who has sold more ring tones than all his contemporaries put together.
"More than just merely a subject at school, more than just a hobby to pass time, Painting (and art in general) is the one thing that society can't seem to bind with laws, guidelines and restrictions. Art for me bends, ruptures and distorts all of the barriers that limit mankind. Art keeps me sane and insane all at once. It makes me blind but let's me see, it makes me deaf but lets me hear. Art is my one sole reason for crawling out of bed each morning and flooding my system with coffee. Art is my passion, my drive, my life. Chelsea College of Art and Design (which I have had the fortune to visit on open days) is the definition of amazing. Something about the place evokes such an extreme craving to just grab a brush, some acrylics and start throwing paint at the canvases around me. Something about the place will make even the most lateral thinking maths teacher foam at the mouth with creative passion. I couldn't miss an opportunity like this for the world."
Statement by Dagenham Park Community School A-level student Martynas Noreika in support of his application to the foundation-preperation saturday school at Chelsea College of Art and Design, October 2008.
"I don't do films about cab drivers"
Legendary film composer Bernard Herrmann's original response to being asked to write the score for Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi driver. He changed his mind after reading the script and extraordinarily died just hours after recording it with an orchestra on Christmas Eve, 1975.
The final shot of the film is a dedication to his memory.
"After 20 years in the Graphic Design business I asked myself this question; Who am I? And the answer is; I don't know"
Graphic Designer Garry Mouat lecturing at Chelsea College of Art and Design, Oct 2008.
"Don't forget our Texas biker fans"
The Rolling Stones to designer Garry Mouat whilst he was designing the sleeve of their live album Flashpoint, their first CD release, 1991.
"New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wodges of pink paper. And none of it makes my character clear or even bearable. The film plods on."
Actor Sir Alec Guiness in a letter to a friend (revealed many years later) whilst shooting Star Wars, 1976.
"Brownjohn was so gifted. His solutions to problems were so clever. What I loved was the way that he would simplify, and simplify, and simplify, until he had the absolute distillation of an answer."
Creative director and freelance fashion illustrator Angela Landels talking about graphic designer Robert Brownjohn.
"After you left the institute you were interested in everything and anything. Moholy was more child-like than anybody I know. He would see something that others thought was ordinary and make you realise that there was more to it. I remember a student blowing bubbles in a ten gallon jar. Most of the students said 'Oh it's nothing' but Moholy was crazy about those bubbles. He would make you look at things differently and students eventually developed that eye, the ability to see things in a new light."
Designer and advertising man Edgar Bartolucci talking about his time at The Chicago Institute of Design when Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was the director (mid 1940's).
"The inflatable flowers were made of store-bought home decor objects. I would purchase them, and make simple, kind of minimalist, set-ups in my apartment, photograph them, and then tear them down, and construct another one and photograph it. My interest was really display. I enjoyed displaying the object."
Artist Jeff Koons talking about the work he was doing in the late 1970's. To see a flower sculpture click here.
"An unsure thing beats a sure thing every time."
Writer, photographer, archivist and pop culture historian, Craig Stecyk III.
"Newton… a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought”
English poet William Wordsworth (April 7, 1770 – April 23, 1850) talking about English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, alchemist and theologian Sir Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727). This quote was originally inscribed around the frame of Apple computers first logo which showed Newton sitting under an apple tree. To see the logo click here.
"If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. If I see two towers, I have to walk."
French high wire artist, Philippe Petit who illegally and successfully slung a wire between the twin towers of the world trade centre in 1974 and spent 45 minutes walking back and forth, dancing, saluting and lying on his back. To see Philippe in action click here
"Architecture aims at eternity and therefore is the only thing incapable of Modes or Fashions in it's principles."
Designer, astronomer, geometer and architect, Christopher Wren 1672.
"My mission then was much as it is now: to make stuff for the Freaks!"
Graphic Equaliser, Fergadelic, from his manifesto.
"I started thinking; 'I could do this. These guys suck and make lots of money and have houses and all."
Fashion photographer, Terry Richardson after being taught the basics of photography as an assistant.
"If I only worked during the day, it would all grind to a halt. During the day you worry, you’re trying to sort things out and don’t have the courage. But as soon as the national working day is finished, the bravery level goes up."
Painter, Gary Hume, 2007
"We have no ******* chance, E.T. should and will walk away with it."
Film director Richard Attenborough after seeing E.T. for the first time and discussing the 1983 Academy awards where his film Gandhi was up for best picture. In the end Gandhi won eight including best picture and E.T. won four.
"I don't love it, but it will grow on me."
Accounting tutor Phil Knight talking about graphic design student Carolyn Davidson's "Swoosh" logo that he commisioned her to create for an upcoming Nike job, 1971.
"I've worked out a series of no's. No to exquisite light, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no's force me to the yes. I have a white background. I have the person I'm interested in and the thing that happens between us."
Photographer Richard Avedon, 1994.
"When people say 'try harder' they should say 'let go'. If you are trying to learn something, it's only when you let it happen that it comes."
John Power, bassist with The La's and lead singer of Cast, 1995
"Don't worry, we'll cripple him in court"
An A+M record company executive talking about an illustrator who had been knocking off Mo Wax T-shirts for personal gain. Mo Wax offices, London, 1995.
"I am a dork"
Professional skateboarder Lance Mountain (spray painted on a wall), 1986.
"Art is never chaste"
Artist Pablo Picasso, via Pete Nevin
"It's totally ridiculous, has no meaning, is simply confusing, and has no dignity — and I think my humor has dignity."
Cartoonist Charles M Schulz talking in 1987 about the United Features Syndicate changing the name of his comic strip from Li'l Folks to Peanuts in 1950 which then ran without interruption for the next fifty years and at it's peak had a readership of 355 million.
At a recent session at Del Mar Neil Blender slammed hard! He slowly walked out toward the entrance. Once out of view of the majority of the skaters, he ripped his helmet off and hurled it through the gate. Next, he threw his board. For about five minutes, he reflected on how bad slamming is. Then, a 10-year old boy walked up and admiringly asked, "Are you really NEIL BLENDER?" Neils reply, "I thought I was."
Thrasher skateboard magazine, 1983
"It is the forms that count. It is the same to me whether my material image is a cathedral or a girdle.....a telephone dial or a stained glass window....the resemblance, while amusing, means nothing. You could say that I have aimed at neutralising meaning....To eliminate appearances seems to be impossible and therefore artificial. Simply grasp them and show how little they mean - this is what Cezanne did."
Artist Claes Oldenburg
"There's only one 'R' in the alphabet"
Hip Hop MC Rakim, lyric from 'Follow the leader' 1987
"I think the very nature of art is affirmative, and in being so it reflects the laws and the evolution of the universe"
Artist Barbara Hepworth, 1970
"Everybody has two jobs: what they do for a living and film critic."
Screenwriter and film critic Roger Ebert.
"Trading Places was the only time I had fun making a movie."
Comedian Eddie Murphy,1996
"Mickey was the only thing that made me happy"
Childrens book illustrator Maurice Sendak talking about his childhood love of Mickey Mouse.
"Where were you last week?"
"I was here"
"No you weren't, I took a register"
"Well I was here in spirit"
First year graphics student Lawrence Yiga's genius response to questions about his absence, University of East London, April 2008.
"I've very much enjoyed my life."
Amercian writer and cartoonist Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr Seuss.
"Modern women gymnasts, as with figure skating, string one dazzling technical display after another, utterly lacking the fluid artistry that elevates performances from Olga's era. Sheer athletic skill becomes the sublime expression of what the human body can achieve only when tempered with grace and poise, whatever the sport."
A YouTube comment posted by cleverkittn underneath a film montage of Russian gymnast Olga Korbut's outstanding moments from the 1972 Olympic games.
"Finding Trewyn studio was a sort of magic. For ten years I had passed by with my shopping bags not knowing what lay behind the wall... Here was a studio, a yard and garden, where I could work in open air and space."
Artist Barbara Hepworth talking about her St Ives studio where she lived, worked and died, 1970.
"Gonna swing at big bucks, like Scrooge McDuck"
Group Home lyric.
"We just found him lying around on the beach when we were out there."
Director Jonathan Glazer talking about Ahab the star of Guiness 'surfer' the world's most popular commercial, Academy February 2001.
"Gulliest thing I could think of"
Dizzee Rascal's response to why he chose an image of flies circling faeces for the logo of his record company Dirtee Stank.
"There's always one and it's always Christina Aguilera."
Heat magazine regarding Christina Aguilera's Oscar night outfit, 2004
"It was a much closer map to what skaters were really like"
Pro skater Ed Templeton talking about World Industries' boundary smashing magazine; Big Brother.
"Leonard Cohen had sent everyone to sleep and then Jimi Hendrix came on and woke everyone up!"
Web designer Richard Benwell talking about Jimi Hendrix's 3am appearance at the Isle of Wight festival, 1970.
"It was just mobbed and screaming and passing out of girls and then I came home"
My girlfriends mum on going to see The Beatles in Ipswich sometime in the early 60's.
"If you don't eat British beef, you must hate this country"
Johnnie Vaughn, The Big Breakfast, 1997
"Sorry I'm late, I had a religious experience"
Nick Phillip, R.A.D Mag, 1987.
"I've been here for a minute huh?"
Elderly man on a San Francisco tram to my friend Will Bankhead, 1993
"I want a haircut like my Grandad would've had after the war"
"Oh yeah, our haircuts"
Senior Graphic Design tutor David Coventon discussing aesthetics with his local barber Toni.
"I forgot where I was for a minute. I thought I was in some bedroom somewhere!"
Winner of 'Britains Missing Top Model' Kelly Knox talking about kissing a male model on set.
"With me the object is MORE, not the biggest or the beautifullest but MORE"
Original NYC graffiti bomber CAP, 1982
"Exagerate your weaknesses"
Writer, psychologist and advocate of psychedelic drug research, Timothy Leary
"The Beatles changed the world with just three small words; yeah, yeah, yeah."
Musician, painter and TV host Rolf Harris
"There isn't a company out there that we compete with that I don't want to see smashed into the ground."
Finance company success story, 'Secret Millionaire' and now champion of volunteer work, James Benamor.
"Wildstyle was the coordinate style and then computer. That's what I brought out. Nobody else can get down with it 'cause it's too fifth-dimensional. I call it the fifth-dimensional step parallel staircase, 'cause it's like computer style in a step-formulated way. It's just sectioned off the way I want. Like if I take a knife and cut it, and slice, you know, I'll slice it to my own section and I'll call it computer style."
Original NYC graffiti writer and widely acknowledged 'King of Style' Kase2 discussing the techniques that he pioneered.
"If it hasn't got Steven Segal in it, I don't go and see it"
Irreverent puppet Zig to his counterpart Zag when asked if he had seen the latest film they were reviewing on 'The Big Breakfast' show, 1997.
"I stand in silent wonder every morning at the genius of Matt"
Broadcaster and Journalist, Jeremy Clarkson talking about 'The Daily Telegraph' cartoonist Matt.
"He didn't really know how to paint, he only knew how to make a powerful image"
Artists Gilbert and George talking about painter Francis Bacon.
"Journalism is chores"
The opening line of journalist and author Norman Mailer's 1976 essay, 'The Faith of Graffiti'.
"I first came to the city at a time when the most beautiful paintings were being done on the subway. I was aware of great artists like LEE."
Artist Keith Haring talking about moving to New York from Pensylvania.
"Even pets are pointless really, unless they win prizes."
Online theological discussion with cinematographer Jerry Goodman, 2000.
"We can make those look really beautiful."
Director of photography Ivan Bird in a pre-production meeting talking about a pile of watermelons we were going to shoot for The Beta Band's 'Broke' video, Academy 2001.
"Entertain me. Show me why you are great."
Hip hop pioneer MC Ramellzee to artist Andy Warhol at a party in NYC in 1982. Warhol froze up and went silent.
"While most artists are in need of money, material, recognition and support, Keith by contrast, has proven time and time again, that a true artist doesn't ask but gives."
Gallery owner and art world mover and shaker Tony Shafrazi talking about artist Keith Haring, August 24, 1982.
'I fuckin' love demise"
Pro skateboarder Andy Roy reflecting on his heroin addiction, mid 90's.
"Everyday I drink a O.E. and I don't go to work"
Beastie Boy lyric from Pauls Boutique
"People didn't seem to realise that we were music hall through and through"
Sex Pistol John Lydon, 1998
"All men are sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create their idea of a masterpiece. Future plans: comedian"
Eddie Murphy's high school yearbook biography.
"Paint and worry little about the critics"
Advice given to impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte 1848-1894, sometime during his career.
"It was like a little mini explosion of happiness in my mouth"
A diner on Gordon Ramsey's 'F-Word' show eating a peach, creme fraiche and marzipan desert.
"I was a fiend, before I became a teen"
Hip Hop lyricist of supreme talent Rakim, lyric from 'Paid In full', 1987
"I never ever want to do this again"
Film director George Lucas exhausted and nearing completion on 'Star Wars', 1976. He stayed true to his word and didn't direct again for another 22 years until 'The Phantom Menace' was released in 1999.
"Shall I scar ya?'"
Thug who tried and failed to nick my friend Ali Peck's bike in an underpass at Tibets corner roundabout, Wandsworth, 1988.
"Oh, he's quite a character"
Legendary skateboarder Tony Alva after I told him I was working with advertising impresario Walter Campbell who he had done a Mercedes campaign with. Vans store, Carnaby st, London 2004.
"Ahh Rector's is it"
Welsh skateboarder watching Will Bankhead put on his 'Rector' knee pads at the Crystal Palace vert ramp, 1986.
"What's rude about about a body?"
"Tits"
Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge talking to his travel tavern receptionist Sophie.
"You've got to get it right every single time, because we're using the take when she get's it right."
Film director Billy Wilder talking to actors Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis re temperamental star Marilyn Monroe on the set of 'Some Like It Hot', 1958.
"Almost anything is worth depicting"
and
"A good idea can come from anywhere"
Artist, Andy Warhol
"I'm still foolin' em"
Film director Stanley Kubrick at some point in his career.
"Like clip art but better"
A staple client request to web designer and illustrator Jerry Goodman, 1998
"The only thing to do is just get on with it"
Artist and graffiti writer Cal1 at the opening of his Soho art show, London 1998
"Even worms dive for cover when they walk down the street"
Illustrator Thorsten Sache on artists Scheufler and Heiss, June 1998
"I've got culture coming out of my ass!"
Steve Martin talking to Michael Caine in Frank Oz's 1988 comedy masterpiece Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
"I don't think he paid much attention to the fish do you?"
An American tourist chuckling to his wife whilst gliding quickly past one of Matisse's interior paintings with goldfish, The Hayward gallery, late 90's.
"Oh yeah right, he paid more attention to those fish than you've ever paid to anything in your life."
Artist Rob Dukes when I told him the above anecdote.
"The trouble with losing touch with reality is, it's the only place you can get a good steak dinner."
Writer, director Woody Allen commenting on theological issues.
"Inspiration takes courage"
Skateboarder, original Z-boy, company founder, pioneer of early skate videos, screenwriter, director and Sundance film festival winner Stacey Peralta.
"There's not enough quotes in it"
Humorous and eccentric British skateboarder Don Brider, at the premiere of Public Domain, Charing Cross rd, London, 1988 as quoted in R.A.D. Magazine.
"Do something for yourself and of yourself"
Graphic designer, author and teacher Jon Wozencroft, lecturing at The Royal College, 1998
"I'm not sure what year it was, but I got addicted to skateboarding as soon as I started doing it....My big escape from life. As soon as I skate, I'm in my own world.....I skate for myself."
Introvert and king of the lip Tom Groholski, Thrasher Interview.
"First white B-boys we don't regret, there aint nothing wrong with your tv set"
Beastie Boys lyric from 'Rock Hard'.
"Shame is one of the worst things that can happen to a human being"
Painter and teacher Robert Henri (1865-1929) from his book 'The Art Spirit'
"Masters are very faulty"
Painter and teacher Robert Henri (1865-1929) from his book 'The Art Spirit'
"Waaaa, you still got a black book man?"
Legendary NYC graffiti writer and member of the pioneering Fabulous Five Lee Quinones when I handed him my sketchbook and asked him to tag it. London, 1998
"What would you do if I wrote 'shit' on your board?"
Veteran skateboarder Steve Alba to a ten year old kid who had handed him his board to sign. Alba then wrote 'SALBA SHIT' on it and handed it back to him. The kid ran off extremely panicked and upset. Holeshot, 1987.
"Oh, I had them in my shop in the 70's. Yeah, they stopped off on the way back to Heathrow after one of their tours. They wanted to buy a load of champagne because the blonde one couldn't fly without being drunk."
An off license owner after spotting my vintage 'Abba, The Movie' poster awaiting collection at the framers, two doors down from his off license, Wimbledon, 1997.
"I don't think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further. it celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it."
Artist Keith Haring, interviewed by S.Couderc, 1985.
"I could do that on a computer in five minutes"
Graphic designer Rob Green looking down from the graphics studio window and in to the fine art studio window where a female student had been painting an ellaborately patterned canvas for months on end, Royal College of Art, 1997.
"Never promise money"
My parents elderly neighbour Peter Vinter in response to being asked if he had any 'life advice', about a year before he died, Wimbledon, 1997.
"That's the best film I've ever seen in my life"
Will Bankhead watching impromptu hand held video footage that John Spencer had shot in a Jamaican recording studio of a guy singing 'Earth Angel', London 2003.
"You can still hear the nervousness in my voice when you listen to it. I was terrified"
Beatle Sir Paul McCartney talking about the recording of their debut single 'Love me do' which reached No17 in the charts in 1962.
"Cut! E.T's quit foolin' around!"
Film director Steven Spielberg to a gaggle of six year old children dressed as aliens whilst shooting the finale sequence of 'Close Encounters of The Third Kind'. The disco craze was sweeping the nation and a group of kids kept breaking in to a 'disco shuffle' whilst he was trying to get the atmospheric shot of the aliens emerging out of the spaceship. Alabama, 1976. taken from the 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind Diary' written by actor Bob Balaban.
"Never be afraid to make massive mistakes"
Film director Stanley Kubrick giving private careers advice to actress Nicole Kidman sometime during the shooting period of 'Eyes Wide Shut' (late 1996 - early 1998.)
"Too much....it really took guts to make this shift this late in the game, because a lot of people are going to hate these things......not me."
Critic Jon Perreault reviewing painter Phillip Guston's first major show that displayed his crude, cartoonish paintings he began to do in the latter years of his life.
"Only Ringo was happy just to just play his drums"
Jean Nisbet publisher in charge of copywright at Apple talking about the arguing and problems The Beatles were having towards the end of their career together in 1969.
"Hope eye don't have to be a jerk...and go to WORK!"
Original NYC graffiti writer RASTA, written on window down panel of an IND line Subway car, NYC 1982.
STAY FREE
Copywriting on a G+S advert showing a rear view of Chris Miller doing a frontside ollie in a pool, Transworld Skateboarding Magazine, 1986.
'The ultimate cosmic surf film. A portrait of surfer/genius George Greenough. Includes 'Echoes' as the soundtrack to the most psychedelic surfing sequence EVER filmed. Be at one with the waves. Beautiful and spiritual, GUARANTEED!'
The copy on the flyer for Christian Petersen's 'Action Presents Late Nite' screening of David Elficks 1972 masterpiece Crystal Voyager at The Other Cinema, London 2004.
Metromint1: How are the corporates?
GoodmanJD: They are dull grey and long.
Instant message between Metromint1 and artist and web man Jerry Goodman, 1999.
"I had a son in Beverley Hills. He used to ride the walls"
An old lady I sat next to on the number 93 bus coming up Putney Hill who had spotted my skateboard, 1986.
"Yeah I often go for walks behind the Black Lion pub and see it. But the walls are so sheer you could never ride up them"
Gillingham based set designer and props man Alex Bunn when asked about the cement skatepark located in his town, Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, 1986.
"I don't want to get up every morning, get slapped about in Karate and then come in here and teach you lot. But I do, I get up, I have honey on bread and then I'm ready to start the day!"
Inspirational and notoriously hard headed art teacher Joe Turner talking about his daily routine to his A-level art class, Esher College, 1991.
"I stay gossip free"
Photographer and designer Will Bankhead in response to being asked what the latest gossip was. Earlsfield, 2007
"Are you happy with it?"
"Couple of shots"
Storyboard artist Adrian Marler talking to film director Jonathen Glazer about his recently completed second feature 'Birth' at the Academy offices, 2004.
"Imagine what you can do if you really try"
Film director Stanley Kubrick.
"Don't be afraid to be multi-directional"
Minimalist artist John McCracken lecturing at The Royal College of Art, 1996.
"Blunder ahead with your own personal view"
Painter and teacher Robert Henri (1865-1929) from his book 'The Art Spirit'
"There's no art in harmony"
Commercials, music video and feature film director Jonathan Glazer, 2004
"Nah..I've tried shit from the chemist"
Artwork production man Andy Holmes, nursing a particularly bad sore throat at the MoWax headquarters, 1997.
"One morning my wife, after the rain, pointed out a spider that was making a marvelous web, so I started a number of web pictures with my wife and myself, and a lot of paraphernalia caught in the web. That's her on the right, with the hair coming down her forehead, and then I thought I'd put a shoe on her head. It's a terrible corny idea, but what can you do? It led to a whole series of paintings with both of us caught in a web."
Phillip Guston, painter.
"I cheat and steal and sin and I'm a cynic"
Beastie Boy lyric from the Pauls Boutique album.
"I'm losing"
Frank Sinatras last words spoken from his deathbed, May 14th 1998.
"I was like...how dare they, how dare they hold this up as something important or new or relevent or ground breaking. When you think of all the incredible artwork that goes into so much popular and mainstream art, like comic books and cinema and record sleeves. Then they hold this up as something of great importance that were meant to take notice of...."
Fergadelic (The Graphic Equalizer) talking about all the commotion and publicity surrounding the release of of Damien Hirsts book: 'I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one to one, always, forever, now' on Booth Clibborn Editions, 1997.
"... and I worked incredibly hard."
Artist and tutor Pete Nevin talking about his time at the RCA and chiding his first year graphic design students at the University of East London, 2008.
"Pure cinema. It's aching beauty will wipe you out."
Frank Rich, of the 'New York Post' reviewing Stanley Kubricks 1975 film Barry Lyndon.
"I have no idea what Ronald Reagen would have said."
Film director David Lynch talking to an interviewee.
"Education as we have it does as much to thwart the recognition of individual experience as lack of education limits it."
Painter and teacher Robert Henri (1865-1929) from his book of notes, letters and advice; 'The Art Spirit'.
"Wilde said a rather brilliant thing. That those who live the artistic life can never know where they're going. The sole purpose of their lives is to realise themselves and to find out who they are, whatever direction it might take. Those who have a firm idea about what they want to be - a judge, a grocer, a politician - always get what they want. 'That is their punishment' as Wilde puts it. And that's what really enraged people about Wilde. That he could say that the perceived view of worldly success, achieving an ambition, is punishment. People interpreted it as artistic snobbery. But he wasn't looking down on anyone at all."
Actor, writer and comedian Stephen Fry talking about one of his heroes, novelist, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde.
"He isn't just any artist, he is THE ARTIST."
Master childrens book illustrator Maurice Sendak talking about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who he listens to every day.
"Colours, design, style, technical advancement.......get loose! Cartoons everything, and when they see you got a vicious style, they be wantin' to get loose about it, you know and that's when, keep it goin', right, keep sparkin' it."
Original NYC graffiti writer and 'king of style' CASE2. As see in in Style Wars.
"Shit, that bloke's training to be a bastard!"
Jerry Goodman on seeing an extremely buff trainee monk punching the **** out of a hanging punchbag at the Buddhist temple in Wimbledon, whilst on location filming 'Bubble Trouble', June 1998.
"I was 27 when I made the movie and I was thinking; what can I do with $60'000 to get myself noticed? I can't afford actors. I don't have a set, and I'm stuck in Texas. So I set out to scare people in a way they hadn't been scared before. And I realised that to do that, I would have to depend on more than gore"
Director Tobe Hooper talking about his second feature film, 1974's 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'.
"Radiant jewel - like colour. It's colour I'm after. Try to visualise these things in colour. that's the vision I've had from a long time ago but keep forgetting. Maybe I should forget it."
Notes from pioneering minimalist artist John McCracken's sketchbook.
".....but making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art"
Andy Warhol
"This shows once more that art is a mysterious domain in which all criticism, however fair, becomes impossible. The aesthetic emotion is an absolute which, ipso facto, implies the existence of the absolute pure and simple"
Seuphor 1956
"What's this?"
"It's my skittle from my toys when I was little."
"The first step to getting what you want out of life is this: decide what you want."
Ben Stein, quoted in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
"Graffiti: an illegal art form invented by kids to have fun"
I've forgotten who said this but it's hot.
"And if I meet you, what if I eat you, I am the tiger"
From Abba's 'I am the tiger', on the 'Arrival' album.
"One has to pay a colossal amount of attention to accidental results because
that's the way one often finds the right solution"
German Playwright, theatre practitioner and poet Bertolt Brecht 1950.
"A gram of push is always worth a ton of holding back"
Professional skateboarder of supreme excellence, turned pastor, Christian Hosoi, 1985.
"The painter is the master of all things that can occur to the human mind,
so that if he desires to see beautiful things that he falls in love with, he is
the master of generating them; if he wants to see monstrous things that
are terrifying or ludicrous and laughable or truly pitiful then he is their
lord and creator".
Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, 1501.
"Well it's the king Adrock and I'm a goddamn fool, don't give a fuck about the golden rule"
Beastie Boy, Adrock lyric from....?
"When people interfere and worry, it becomes impossible"
Video and commercials director Chris Cunningham talking about work.
"Who's in charge of the stupid place, I want to punch his stupid face"
Dylan Mills aka Dizzee Rascal from his song 'Excuse me please', on the 'Maths and English' album.
"He was always off doing his band"
My friend Jerry Goodmans stepdad when asked what it was like going to art school with John Lennon.
"I love it when you're standing there in the Subway station and everything's
grey and gloomy and then one of those graffiti trains slides in like a giant
bouquet from Spanish Harlem and brightens the whole place up"
Artist Claes Oldenberg, New York, 1975.
"At the end of the day he would leave his things - his brushes, his sneakers,
his tools - all neat and clean and lined up in a row. Then he was gone. You had to run to catch him."
Gallery owner Tony Shafrazi, on artist Keith Haring.
"When it loses it's fun and it's funk, I'm out"
Andrew Whitten, also known as Zephyr, original New York graffiti writer, 1998.
"The way I come up with tricks, it hampers me to be around other people, alot you have to be by yourself, it has to be your own expression. You gotta just, ah, it just comes out, you don't know your gonna make it up five minutes beforehand. It just comes out. If it's pure, if it's a good trick."
Rodney Mullen, freestyle skateboarder of unmatchable talent, 1986
"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up for work."
Artist Chuck Close, as quoted in Art and Auction
"We want inventors all through life; the only people that ever succeed in writing, painting, sculpture, manufacturing, in finance, are inventors."
Painter and teacher Robert Henri (1865-1929) from his book 'The Art Spirit'
"I got to be just famous enough to realise that anonymity is priceless in every sense"
Rodney Mullen, freestyle skateboarder of unmatchable talent, 1986