David Rockefeller

I hope the Guggenheim plan will be revived.

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

The Japanese banks are not having an easy time as they once had.

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

I am a passionate traveler, and from the time I was a child, travel formed me as much as my formal education.

When I see something I like, I buy it, but I do not look for it madly.

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.

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.

I don’t want to put too many boxes on it because the work speaks louder than words.

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

All art inspires me. Life inspires me. The art of life, thus my own art.

I’m just an individual who doesn’t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I’m working for me.

I’m terribly intuitive-I always thought I was intellectual about what I do, but I’ve come to the realization that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing half the time.

There is only 1 difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.

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.

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

I’ve always felt that a lot of modern art is a con, and that the most successful painters are often better salesmen and promoters than they are artists.

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.

Life is tough and if you’re creative, it’s tougher.

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

If you hold onto the beauty and inspiration and the clarity that is music, you will have an anchor, you will not be too far swayed by what the world is.