Gerhard Richter

Weeks go by, and I don't paint until finally I can't stand it any longer. I get fed up. I almost don't want to talk about it, because I don't want to become self-conscious about it, but perhaps I create these little crises as a kind of a secret strategy to push myself. ”

A father draws boundaries and calls a halt, whenever necessary. As I didn't have that, I was able to stay childishly naive that much longer - so I did what I liked, because there was nobody stopping me, even when I got it wrong. ”

Without form, communication stops... without form, you have everybody burbling on to themselves, whenever and however, things that no one else can understand and - rightly - no one else is interested in. ”

I don't think I can do this - painting under observation. It's the worst thing there is, worse than being in the hospital. ”

Now that we do not have priests and philosophers any more, artists are the most important people in the world. ”

Every museum is full of nice things. That's the opposite of before. It was important things or serious things. Now we have interesting things. ”

I go to the studio every day, but I don't paint every day. I love playing with my architectural models. I love making plans. I could spend my life arranging things. ”

Politicians are nauseating by definition... They can produce nothing, neither a loaf of bread nor a table nor a picture; and this inability to create value, this total inferiority, makes them jealous, vengeful, insolent and a menace to life and limb. ”

Chance determines our lives in important ways. ”

I do see myself as the heir to a vast, great, rich culture of painting - of art in general - which we have lost, but which places obligations on us. ”