Claes Oldenburg Quotes

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

A mere copier of nature can never produce anything great.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

I don't want to be trending. Instead of pursuing ideas of being more radio-friendly and... commercial, I want to go harder at being more creative.

Originality is only variation.

It is a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions and actions of others.

...Any authentic creation is a gift to the future.

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of nature, but the grandchild. It is always best to have recourse to nature, which is replete with such abundance of objects, than to the productions of other masters, who learnt everything from her.

Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.

Man is an idiot. He doesn't know how to do anything without copying, without imitating, without plagiarizing, without aping. It might even have been that man invented generation by coitus after seeing the grasshopper copulate.

It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what's good enough and start creating art that matters.

Art is either revolution or plagiarism

It's very difficult to be original.

Art only begins where Imitation ends.

Every creation is, at its root, the struggle between potential form and imitated form.

Own what you are, and I mean whether that's art, or whether that's fashion, or whether that's music, or whether that's acting, or whether that's politics, or whether that's literature; it's own what you are, and grab it, and, you know, be as prolific as possible.

You've really got to get down on the floor with yourself and get low in order to make great art. I think you've just got to accept who you are and do the most unbelievable things.

The world is forever babbling of originality; but there never yet was an original man, in the sense intended by the world; the first man himself--who according to the Rabbins was also the first author--not being an original; the only original author being God.

I admire anyone who can come up with something original. But not originality alone, because there can be originality in stupidity, with no musical description of any emotion or any beauty the man has seen, or any kind of life he has lived.

You come to Paris, you get true originality, and it's wonderful.

The greatest danger in art is too much knowledge.

Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared.

I don't think in art there is ever a precedent; each moment is a new one and terrifying and threatening and bursting with hope.