Gerhard Richter

“I am ridiculously old-fashioned.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“I have no time for specialized concerns, working themes or variations that lead to mastery... I like the indefinite, the boundless; I like continual uncertainty. Other qualities may be more conducive to achievement, publicity, success; but they are all outworn - as outworn as ideologies, opinions, concepts and names for things.”