Dave Liebman

There is nothing new… everything has roots in the past.

A Jazz performance centers upon the process of creation. The final objective is not only the finished product, but the path and process taken towards it.

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

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.’

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

I wouldn’t give five cents for all the art in the world.

The essence of all Art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.

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

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

To this day I’m really not sure if I was playing Ziggy [Stardust] or if Ziggy was exaggerated aspects of my own personality. A fair amount of psychological baggage was undoubtedly coming out through the character. Because I felt awkward and nervous and inadequate with myself, it felt easier to be somebody else.

I cry out for order and find it only in art.

The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation.

The arts are at the center of a nation’s purpose and a test of civilization.

The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.

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

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.