Donald Judd Quotes

The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well.

The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.

Better not to invent her in her absence. Better to wait until she's actually here. Then he can make her up as she goes along.

Every previous era looks innocent.

Simplicity is not the absence of clutter.

New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.

Have you noticed when you wear a hat for a long time it feels like it's not there anymore? And then when you take it off it feels like it's still there?

Simple ignorance has in its time been complimented by the names of most of the vices, and of all the virtues.

Nothing is ever the same as they said it was. It's what I've never seen before that I recognize.

That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex.

A lot of the time you keep looking for beauty, but it is already there. And if you look with a little bit more intention, you see it.

My natural tendency is to complicate everything--and then to spray words and ideas onto everything afterwards. I've had to develop the habit of keeping things simple.

On one hand you want to see your subject well. On the other hand, you want to be caught off guard to retain the spontaneity. If you know your subject too well you stop seeing it.

Always listen for what you can leave out.

You leave space for the body, imagining the other part even though it isn't there.

You know how you let yourself think that everything will be all right if you can only get to a certain place or do a certain thing. But when you get there you find it's not that simple.

I would like a simple life / yet all night I am laying / poems away in a long box.

Simplicity is really hard.

Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare.

On one hand it's very flattering to be compared to a big success, and then sometimes it's very frustrating because you want people to see the movie that you're making and not be continually comparing it to something that it's not. So it goes both ways.

Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, mush less to squeeze more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back on content so we can see the thing at all. The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us.

Java is C++ without the guns, clubs and knives.

If you wish to discern either the presence or absence of integrity, you need to ask only one question. What is missing? Has anything been left out?

All that makes earlier times seem simpler is our ignorance of their complexities.

A new acquaintance is like a new book. I prefer it, even if bad, to a classic.