When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'
David HockneyRead
I can get excitement watching rain on a puddle. And then I paint it. Now, I admit, there are not too many people who would find that exciting. But I would. And I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the joy of finding excitement in simple experiences and the importance of actively creating a rich life.
David Hockney emphasizes the beauty of appreciating ordinary moments, like watching rain on a puddle. He suggests that one can derive profound excitement from life by engaging with it creatively and openly, transforming the mundane into something thrilling through art and personal perspective.
Themes
ExcitementArtAppreciationLifeCreativityThrill
In practice
Example use cases
In a creative writing workshop, to inspire students to find beauty in everyday moments.
More from David Hockney
All quotes →I'm interested in all kinds of pictures, however they are made, with cameras, with paint brushes, with computers, with anything.
David HockneyRead
I've always wanted to be able to paint the dawn.
David HockneyRead
My only worry is the painting I'm doing. Nothing else.
David HockneyRead
In fact, most artists want to make things a bit more difficult for themselves as they go along, to challenge themselves.
David HockneyRead
Cubism was an attack on the perspective that had been known and used for 500 years. It was the first big, big change. It confused people: they said, 'Things don't look like that!'
David HockneyRead
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Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain.
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One of the ways my first novel failed was that I was too in love with my characters.
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True ornament is not a matter of prettifying externals. It is organic with the structure it adorns, whether a person, a building, or a park. At its best it is an emphasis of structure, a realization in graceful terms of the nature of that which is ornamented
Frank Lloyd WrightRead