Richard Serra Quotes

There's no right way. There's no measurement system. That's why, you know, art competitions are a little confusing to me. I mean, they're lovely, but so many people are affected by different people and different things in such different ways. And yeah, it's immeasurable.

You can't prove Rembrandt is better than Norman Rockwell - although if you actually do prefer Rockwell, I'd say you were shunning complexity, were secretly conservative, and hadn't really looked at either painter's work. Taste is a blood sport.

The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it.

The rule in the art world is: you cater to the masses or you kowtow to the elite; you can't have both.

Ballet is an incredible art, but it can be a bit elitist, which is a really big turn off to me.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is what he is. It has nothing to do with the fact that other people want what they want.

Art is not about objects of high monetary exchange. It's about reasserting our firsthand experience in present time.

The problem with art is, it's not like the game of golf where you put the ball in the hole. There's no umpire; there's no judge. There are no rules. It's one of its problems. But it's also one of the great things about art. It becomes a question of what lasts.

Art is not an elitist gift for a few select people. Art is for everyone.

Those who say only artists and architects can create are the ones who are elitist.

Not acknowledging that beauty is complex-that's the problem. I enjoy making it complex for people, because that's my world.

Art is difficult. It's not entertainment. There are only a few people who can say something about art - it's very restricted. When I see a new artist I give myself a lot of time to reflect and decide whether it's art or not. Buying art is not understanding art.

Those who are concerned with the arts are often asked questions, not always sympathetic ones, about the use or value of what they are doing. It is probably impossible to answer such questions directly, or at any rate to answer the people who ask them.

Less disappointing than life, great works of art do not begin by giving us all their best.

What's so astonishing about not understanding? There are so many things in art, beginning with art itself, that one doesn't understand. A painter doesn't see everything that he has put in his painting.

If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.

Understanding is a form of blindness. Good art, I think, can never be understood.

Much of appreciating art or music is really the interpretation of the listener. To a certain extent it's projection - it's what people need or lack in themselves that they then put upon these people that they admire.

Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. The size of the project means little in art, beyond the money matter. It is the quality of the character that really counts.

I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.

The best reason to paint is that there is no reason to paint... I'd like to pretend that I've never seen anything, never read anything, never heard anything... and then make something... Every time I make something I think about the people who are going to see it and every time I see something, I think about the person who made it... Nothing is important... so everything is important.

Art has got nothing to do with taste.

[Being unique] gives so much privilege to people who can make it, rather than having some moral and aesthetic discussions.

Today, I find inspiration in music, art, traveling the world, and meeting new people.

I don't believe that art makes people violent in any way. I don't. But I do believe art can show people how to be violent and that's much more dangerous in a way.