Gerhard Richter

“I go to the studio every day, but I don't paint every day. I love playing with my architectural models. I love making plans. I could spend my life arranging things.”

“I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes or variations that lead to mastery... I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty. Other qualities may be more...”

“People won't stop painting, just as they won't stop making music or dancing. This is a facility we have. Children don't stop doing it or having it. On the other hand, it seems we don't need...”

“Weeks go by, and I don't paint until finally I can't stand it any longer. I get fed up. I almost don't want to talk about it, because I don't want to become self-conscious about it, but perh...”

“Good art in general aspires to something, as a good painting aspires to something, almost spiritual or holy.”

“A father draws boundaries and calls a halt, whenever necessary. As I didn't have that, I was able to stay childishly naive that much longer - so I did what I liked, because there was nobody...”

“I do see myself as the heir to a vast, great, rich culture of painting - of art in general - which we have lost, but which places obligations on us.”

“Now that we do not have priests and philosophers any more, artists are the most important people in the world.”

“I don't dare to think my paintings are great. I can't understand the arrogance of someone saying, 'I have created a big, important work.'”

“Politicians are nauseating by definition... They can produce nothing, neither a loaf of bread nor a table nor a picture; and this inability to create value, this total inferiority, makes the...”

“I have always been structured. What has changed is the proportions. Now it is eight hours of paperwork and one of painting.”

“I am ridiculously old-fashioned.”

“When I begin, theoretically and practically I can smear anything I want on the canvas. Then there's a condition I have to react to, by changing it or destroying it.”