David Rockefeller

Much corporate giving is charitable in nature rather than philanthropic.

I think I am basically a happy person.

I learned more from my mother than from all the art historians and curators who have informed me about technical aspects of art history and art appreciation over the years.

Only once in my life was I on the edge of incivility.

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.

I am convinced that material things can contribute a lot to making one’s life pleasant, but, basically, if you do not have very good friends and relatives who matter to you, life will be really empty and sad and material things cease to be important.

An artist can only be evaluated after he’s dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

I got more publicity for not doing a festival than for doing the festival.

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

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

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

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.

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

Can anybody be given creativity? No. Only equipment to develop it if it’s in them in the first place.

He knows all about art, but he doesn’t know what he likes.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

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

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.’

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.

A poem is a naked person… Some people say that I am a poet.