Cai Guo-Qiang Quotes

For me, I am still very happy to be able to do stage design as it's an opportunity to express the extreme.

If you were to say to me that I couldn't paint, I would write. If I couldn't write, I would be a set designer. As long as I'm creating something, I'm happy.

My best days do seem like a distillation of all that was best about school. Write a story! Paint a picture! Write a poem! Make a print!

When you're an artist, all you're trying to do is self-express.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

The only thing in life that really gives me any peace is just being lost in the process of creating something, whether it's the film or painting and drawing, which has been a big part of my life, for a long time.

I want to liberate my imagination and my mind with every kind of movie. That is what I wanted to do all my life.

Because even very young people are expert readers of pictures, you can convey very complex and subtle messages through pictures that you'd need loads of words to explain. Making a picture book is also a bit like making your own film - and you can make anything you want happen, however impossible!

When I'm directing films, I mostly try to create an environment on set that mimics what's in my mind as to the tone and feel of things. I try to create a place where you feel that anything's possible.

I get to experiment with a lot of looks with my character so that's really fun for me. It's like getting to paint a new canvas everyday.

The thing that I enjoy about animation is the fact that it is unbridled, and there are no boundaries; when you are in the room, you don't have to focus on your clothing, make-up, hair, your choreography or your blocking; you really do have total freedom.

We can do things that we never could before. Stop-motion lets you build tiny little worlds, and computers make that world even more believable.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.

Because there is so little room for expression otherwise, a lot of people love cinema because they find it a way of expressing themselves.

A studio allows me more freedom. You can create your own sort of reality which is actually more exciting than shooting on location. You can conjure up a complete atmosphere of escapism for the public.

Digital imaging has untied our hands with regards to technical limitations. We no longer have to be arbiters of technology; we get to participate in the interpretation of technology into creative content.

For years, I was watching other people have so much fun playing out their version of authorship, like Louis C.K. and Larry David. As I watched them do their thing, I began to pine for the days when I had a lot less expected of me and, often, a lot more creative freedom. The courage that those guys have is always captivating to me.

In a way, I envy the freedom artists have. Artists can push themselves beyond their limits, in pursuit of their ideas and their vision, even if they are inhabited by demons that can also play tricks on them.

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.

I have to go someplace where I can soak myself in a creative atmosphere.

There's a good many pictures I'd like to make; we'll see how many I'll be allowed to make.

With animation, because you can draw anything and do anything and have the characters do whatever you want, the tendency is to be very loose with the boundaries and the rules.

I sort of jumped out of movies and into the lifeboat of comics. I loved it right away. It was the opposite of film school. Whatever was in my imagination could end up in the finished product. There were just no limitations.

I need someone who understands an artist's mentality. I couldn't be with someone who wouldn't let me have my freedom.