Gerhard Richter Quotes & Sayings

“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 them jealous, vengeful, insolent and a menace to life and limb.”

“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 conducive to achievement, publicity, success; but they are all outworn - as outworn as ideologies, opinions, concepts and names for things.”

“Gray is the color... the most important of all... absent of opinion, nothing, neither/nor.”

“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.'”

“Chance determines our lives in important ways.”

“Every museum is full of nice things. That's the opposite of before. It was important things or serious things. Now we have interesting things.”

“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.”

“I believe in painting and I believe in eating too. What can we do? We have to eat, we have to paint, we have to live. Of course, there are different ways to survive. But it's my best option.”

“I don't think I can do this - painting under observation. It's the worst thing there is, worse than being in the hospital.”

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