The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

- David Hockney

I worked in the NHS as a hospital orderly during my national service, and people thought it was a noble service. But over the years it's lost its humanity.

- David Hockney

I'm fed up with being bossed around.

- David Hockney

Always live in the ugliest house on the street - then you don't have to look at it.

- David Hockney

Photographs aren't accounts of scrutiny. The shutter is open for a fraction of a second.

- David Hockney

Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer and clearer still, until your eyes ache.

- David Hockney

Smoking calms me down. It's enjoyable. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life.

- David Hockney

The photograph isn't good enough. It's not real enough.

- David Hockney

I actually think the deafness makes you see clearer. If you can't hear, you somehow see.

- David Hockney

What I didn't know was I was deeply attracted to the big space.

- David Hockney

Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it.

- David Hockney

The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.

- David Hockney

Enjoyment of the landscape is a thrill.

- David Hockney

What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing. You wouldn't be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.

- David Hockney

Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make.

- David Hockney

I had always planned to make a large painting of the early spring, when the first leaves are at the bottom of the trees, and they seem to float in space in a wonderful way. But the arrival of spring can't be done in one picture.

- David Hockney

I prefer living in color.

- David Hockney

Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus.

- David Hockney

Anything simple always interests me.

- David Hockney

I'm a very early riser, and I don't like to miss that beautiful early morning light.

- David Hockney