Howard Hodgkin

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

— Howard Hodgkin

#caused #comes #finished #made #object

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. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#being #collect #collecting #eat #extravagance

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

— Howard Hodgkin

#am #devoutly #expected #happy #i

I am isolated as an artist, not as a person. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#artist #i #i am #isolated #person

I don't look at the work of my contemporaries very much; I tend to look at pictures by dead artists. It's much easier to get near their paintings. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#contemporaries #dead #easier #get #i

I don't really have a historical overview of my work at all. I'm not an art historian. I don't see that there's this period and that period. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#historian #historical #i #overview #period

I don't think you can lightly paint a picture. It's an activity I take very seriously. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#i #lightly #paint #picture #seriously

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

— Howard Hodgkin

#because #category #crack #fell #fit

I find old copies of National Gallery catalogues, which are written in the dryest possible prose, infinitely soothing. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#copies #find #gallery #i #infinitely

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. ↗

— Howard Hodgkin

#been #collection #collectors #demands #energy