Bruce Nauman

“Learn to recognize when you're being manipulated.”

“A lot of my work is about what you can't see, or what's not there.”

“I think of my work as a kind of practice, a way of getting through the day.”

“The true artist helps the world by revealing mystic truths.”

“Art is a matter of life and death. It may be that art is a matter of survival.”

“If I was an artist and I was in the studio, then whatever I was doing in the studio must be art.”

“My work comes out of being frustrated, confused, and disgusted with the human condition.”

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

“Pay attention motherfuckers.”

“I'm interested in the sense of 'I don't know'.”

“I use my body as a tool, an object, to be manipulated.”

“I was trying to find a way to make art that was not so much about me.”

“Art is a way of investigating the world, a way of asking questions.”

“I've always been interested in the idea of the artist as an exemplary sufferer.”

“The function of art is to make you think.”

“It seems to me that the artist's function is to be a kind of annoying, irritating person.”

“I want to make things that are hard to walk away from.”