David Rockefeller

I never kept a diary, but I wrote detailed notes of my travels.

I owe much to mother. She had an expert’s understanding, but also approached art emotionally.

Philanthropy is involved with basic innovations that transform society, not simply maintaining the status quo or filling basic social needs that were formerly the province of the public sector.

The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.

MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.

I can only say that I have had a wonderful life.

We’ll buy some drugs and watch a band and jump in a river holding hands.

A museum has to renew its collection to be alive, but that does not mean we give on important old works.

Good art will speak to you if you give it a chance.

I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.

It’s like telling Michelangelo: ‘I know you painted this dope angel, that was really good, but Michelangelo, I don’t think you can paint a cow.’

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

Make the best of every moment. We’re not evolving. We’re not going anywhere.

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort.

They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

What’s any artist, but the dregs of his work? the human shambles that follows it around. What’s left of the man when the work’s done but a shambles of apology.

This type of soul, this type of art takes a while to cook. It’s like when my wife cooks for me and I always ask for greens. She never wants to cook the greens because they take three hours to cook.

Art is constant tension and release. That is where artists live, between the two or at times, submerged in either.

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

Eventually, most people felt MoMA had filled a very important gap.