David Rockefeller

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

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.

I think I am basically a happy person.

You know, gentlemen, that I do not owe any personal income tax. But nevertheless, I send a small check, now and then, to the Internal Revenue Service out of the kindness of my heart.

I suspect that many corporations have begun to understand that they have an important role to play in the lives of their communities, and that allocating funds to support local groups helps them discharge that function and also burnish their image.

The Christian ethic played an essential part in my upbringing.

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

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

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Creative Arts raise a person to another level of consciousness as if you could imagine life before words.

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.

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.

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

People with talent are not interested in showing off behind another person.

I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.

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

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.

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

Everybody has that feeling when they look at a work of art and it’s right, that sudden familiarity, a sort of…recognition, as though they were creating it themselves, as though it were being created through them while they look at it or listen to it.

Playing with freedom can only come after a certain amount of foundational study.

The role of a museum of modern art is to make a good selection and identify what we believe to be the coming movements, and that requires taste.