46 Quotes by Howard Hodgkin

Matisse was very clear about saying that you have to blow your own trumpet and explain yourself, which I think has been slightly forgotten.

I want my pictures to be things. I want them to be made up of marks that are physically and individually self-sufficient.

A painting is finished when the subject comes back, when what has caused the painting to be made comes back as an object.

I fell through a crack for years. Historically, I am a nothing because I fit in no category. I can only be me.

You keep on balancing and balancing and balancing until the picture wins, because then the subject's turned into the picture.

I am happy for people to talk about my pictures, but I wish devoutly that I was not expected to talk about them myself.

When I finish a painting, it usually looks as surprising to me as to anyone else.

A collection makes its own demands. Many artists have been collectors. I think of it rather as an illness. I felt it was using up too much energy.

Collecting has been my great extravagance. It's a way of being. I collect for the same reason that I eat too much-I'm one of nature's shoppers.