Nigel Dennis Quotes

Painting pictures didn't make me a lot of money. I have to eat.

I was so in debt by the end of 'Dust Devil,' having picked up the tab personally for the post-production of the movie, and having no way to recoup because I didn't own the rights to the movie. There was no way I could see any money back on it, so any money spent was just a dead loss.

I grew up middle class. My father was a public functionary who didn't leave an inheritance, just debts.

Credit buying is much like being drunk. The buzz happens immediately and gives you a lift... The hangover comes the day after.

I love doing independent films, but it's very hard to make a living that way.

I never planned to be a model at all. I moved to Paris to study art, and I was there working as an artist, taking classes, and I had a little sick dog that I was using up all of my money to try and heal. It was right at that point that this photographer, Errol Sawyer, saw me at the phoning office and convinced me to let him take my photo.

In my early days, I was about 145 pounds. I was really a starving artist; the poster child for starving artists.

I hope to actually get back to painting someday... soon. I sort of transitioned into cartooning from painting.

My movement from painting to film was a very conscious one.

I plough all my money into my next film, so I never actually have any money. It's always invisible.

During the Eighties, when I was hurting for money, I thought, 'Hang on a minute - I can paint.' I was living in New York and I thought it would get the grocery money coming in, and it escalated from there.

I put myself in debt to get to the NBA.

Unfortunately we were living beyond our means. I didn't do the bills, I didn't have any idea what our financial situation was. We had the cars, the boat, the motorcycles and the houses. I didn't even know. And then when we got a divorce there wasn't a lot of money to split up and what there was, was spent on the divorce. It was really difficult.

You know exactly what I think of photography. I would like to see it make people despise painting until something else will make photography unbearable. (In a letter to Alfred Stieglitz)

Photography and writing are marvelous distractions from painting. I might even have found movies more interesting than photography. I tried it a bit, but not enough.

Photography freed painting from a lot of tiresome chores, starting with family portraits.

I've gone bankrupt about four times now. Every dollar I earn goes on the show.

I never wanted to be a filmmaker. I still, sometimes, think I got sidetracked by this, like this is a tangent. My main thing was painting; I was just going to do that.

The farmer's way of saving money: to be owed by someone he trusted.

The plan was that I was going to do comics, and then the music just cam up in my life and was a detour.

One thing I want to make clear: You never want to hide from your debts. It doesn't work.

We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.

I could take a photo, but I'd rather paint a picture.

I paint what cannot be photographed, something from the imagination... I photograph the things I don't want to paint, things that are already in existence.

Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.