Top 8 Martin Gayford Quotes

I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I’m greedy for an exciting life.

I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money – I think that can be a burden – I’m greedy for an exciting life. I want it to be exciting all the time, and I get it, actually. On the other hand, I can find excitement, I admit, in raindrops falling on a puddle and a lot of people wouldn’t. I intend to have it exciting until the day I fall over.

It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work.

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty,you know you're an artist.

It's the very process of looking at something that makes it beautiful.

Artists, real artists, have to work. They can’t be hedonists. Really good painters are always working. The world is such a marvelous place. You have to look and to work. That’s exactly why Van Gogh was such a great artist: total commitment. That’s what you need.

I believe that the very process of looking can make a thing beautiful.

Most art will disappear. The past is edited so it always looks clearer to us. Today always looks a bit of a jumble. We'll put up with rubbish from now, but not with rubbish from the past.