Geri Allen

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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’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.

There is no art without intention.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.

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.