Robert Rauschenberg Quotes

I don't believe in originality in art. I think we exist on this earth to inspire each other, through our actions, through our deeds, and through who we are. We're always borrowing.

If you think a man draws the type of hands that you want to draw, steal ‘em. Take those hands.

I think that artists don't make art - the art makes itself through us. I'm not the doer. I'm just along for the ride. Acting really reminds me of that because I don't write the words; I don't make the decisions. That's the director. Narcissism is a tragic condition. It must be so miserable to live trapped in a reflection that only includes the smallest version of our identities. Our true identities should have no bounds and no limits.

Yes, influences are enriching, and they can be found in every work of art, even the most original.

It's intimidating any time to have a piece of art that someone else created, and that person says, 'Let's see what you created based on what I created.'

You know if I see a work that really I am very affected by and inspired by then it makes me want to try things with my work that maybe I hadn't considered trying before and I think that is the biggest complement that you can pay somebody.

Artists everywhere steal mercilessly all the time and I think this is healthy.

Picasso had a saying - 'good artists copy, great artists steal' - and we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

[Great artists] do not copy what they see, but what they desire.

The way that I'm working now is basically the way I've been working since I was a kid: Find the greatest artist in whatever you do, and rip them off with respect. I think there's a big difference between ripping off with respect and ripping off in disrespect.

Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.

I take stuff because I'm inspired by it.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

The trouble is, once you say something about a source, then you've pegged it down, and so now I'm reluctant to say anything. If I say I developed 50 different shapes from Mississippian tumuli, that doesn't mean they're copies of tumuli - I'm not ripping off those shapes.

So much of what we do as artists is a combination of personal experience and imagination, and how that all creeps into your work is not so linear.

Stanley Kubrick was a big inspiration. People accuse me of never using my own material. But when did Kubrick? You look at his films and they are completely unique... completely separate entities.

If I saw the art around me that I liked, then I wouldn't do art.

We all borrow and steal and copy from each other, and that's the way I think people get inspired.

I think it's more, at least at the time, a sense of abstraction. My mind doesn't really work in a way where there's a definitive sense of something. I go one way and then it opens up into a million different ideas, and somehow, when you look at the art, Buddhist art, or particularly Tibetan art, you know, it's a similar thing. All of a sudden there are a million lotus leaves and you're following one to the next and to another, and I related to that, and it felt simple and easy to me. And it made me feel smart.

To admire on principle is the only way to imitate without loss of originality.

Do not copy nature. Art is an abstraction. Rather, bring your art forth by dreaming in front of her and think more of creation.

That's what great art does - it inspires other artists to do great art, and that's what it should do.

I believe that the source of your inspiration is very important. I sometimes see this problem with photographers, even very good ones, who have drawn too much inspiration from photography and who, over time, have a problem forming their own identity.

Craft can get you through ninety percent of a piece, but it's art that carries you at the end.

One musician listens to another musician, and you get inspired and then you do your thing, but it's yours.