Gerhard Richter Quotes

Art makes us human, music makes us human, and I deeply feel that science makes us human.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

We want to say the same thing. The press wants something different. The people who are successful in our end of the business are those who find different ways of saying the same thing.

Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?

The hardest part is not to repeat yourself. I don't really believe my core obsessions are going to change, but you need to look for ways to express them that are different. The main reason for doing that is not to bore yourself, and obviously, I don't want to bore readers.

Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

For me, it would be pointless to write a novel that I knew I could complete within a specific length of time. I could do that only by repeating something I had done before, and I've never wanted to do that.

I really value words. I really try to illustrate and let people draw their own conclusions.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

Art is I; science is we.

To form our taste, we must neither depreciate nor imitate, but we should understand and originate.

A teacher is a person who never says anything once.

Writing is incredibly important to me as a way of handling the world, understanding how it works.

All the blues greats took chances and developed their own style. They didn't copy.

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

Trying to force creativity is never good.

I don't repeat that many styles if I can help, although some have become classics. I try not to repeat. I'd rather surprise people.

Rules and models destroy genius and art.

Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity.

When one paints an ideal, one does not need to limit one's imagination.

Theater is dangerously open to repetition. It's exciting when you hit on a new way.

To be a writer is to connect and to play and to attempt to see clearly and understand. It astounds me regularly that feeling things deeply and writing them down is basically my job description.

You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn't in the world before. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter if it's a table or a film or gardening-everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, 'I did that.'

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.