Bruce Nauman's Quotes

If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.

I like to use my hands and make things... It might seem pretty stupid or pointless but that doesn't matter... some of the most interesting work is the stuff that starts like that - out of a raw need for activity.

In art, the only one who really knows whether what you've done is honest is the artist.

And then what makes the work interesting is if you choose the right questions.

I don't like to think about being an influence. It's embarrassing.

I'll talk. You'll listen.

If you choose the wrong questions and you proceed, you still get a result, but it's not interesting.

What I am really concerned about is what art is supposed to be - and can become.

And I don't have any specific steps to take because I don't start the same way every time. But there is a knowing when it's enough and you can leave it alone.

And so I put down some of the things that he said, about keeping your tools sharpened and not letting them lie on the ground where they get hurt or get abused and dirty and can't find them. And some thoughts about how his father used to do things.

But if you can find that spot - I suppose it's like running - I used to be a swimmer and swim laps, and you just have to be there with what you're doing.

But part of the enjoyment I take in it is finding the most efficient way to do it, which doesn't mean the corrections aren't made. I like to have a feeling of the whole task before I start, even if it changes.

Generalised anger and frustration is something that gets you in the studio, and gets you to work - though it's not necessarily evident in anything that's finished.

In the studio, I don't do a lot of work that requires repetitive activity. I spend a lot of time looking and thinking and then try to find the most efficient way to get what I want, whether it's making a drawing or a sculpture, or casting plaster or whatever.

In this case we're building a corner to stretch a fence and hang a gate. It had a real purpose in the ranch here. I needed to do this. But at the same time, it made a beautiful structure.

When men are arrested without any legal basis and for political reasons, it's merely a routine, everyday occurrence in Russia, and hardly anyone has any sympathy.

The party of swindlers and thieves is putting forward its chief swindler and its chief thief for the presidency. We must vote against him, struggle against him.

Consistency for me is everything.

Everyone says corruption is everywhere, but for me it seems strange to say that and then not try to put the people guilty of that corruption away.

I am not ready to back away from my views.

I really hate the people in power. I hate them with every fiber of my being. That is what drives me in almost everything I do.

I think very poorly of United Russia. United Russia is the party of corruption, the party of crooks and thieves.

I'm not afraid and these 15 days convinced me there is nothing to fear. Let them be afraid instead.

I'm not going to appeal to violence or aggression - of course not.

I'm on the very blackest part of the black list.

I'm only sort of a politician.