Henry Moore Quotes

I think in terms of the day's resolutions, not the years'.

To be an artist is to believe in life.

One never knows what each day is going to bring. The important thing is to be open and ready for it.

If I set out to sculpt a standing man and it becomes a lying woman, I know I am making art.

Art is the expression of imagination, not the reproduction of reality.

The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.

The important thing is somehow to begin.

A sculptor is a person obsessed with the form and the shape of things, and it's not just Ihe shape of any one thing, but the shape of any thing and everything.

In my opinion, everything, every shape, every bit of natural form, animals, people, pebbles, shells, anything you like are all things that can help you to make a sculpture.

Painting and sculpture help other people to see what a wonderful world we live in.

The observation of nature is part of an artist's life, it enlarges his form [and] knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by formula, and feeds inspiration.

I have always liked drawing, when you draw you see things more intensely.

The soul cannot thrive in the absence of art.

Sculpture is an art of the open air... I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know.

A work can have in it a pent-up energy, an intense life of its own, independent of the subject it may represent.

I find drawing a useful outlet for ideas for which there is not time enough to realize as sculpture... And I sometimes draw just for its own enjoyment.

A sculptor is a person who is interested in the shape of things, a poet in words, a musician by sounds.

To know one thing, you must know the opposite.

It is a mistake for a sculptor or a painter to speak or write very often about his job. It releases tension needed for his work.

The whole of nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form. It always surprises me when artists try to escape from this.

You must always be open to your luck. You cannot force it, but you can recognize it.

I think, what has this day brought me, and what have I given it?

Clever people can copy the handwriting of an artist - it's like forging a person's signature.

The observation of nature is part of an artist's life.

Being an artist is celebrating life.

You leave space for the body, imagining the other part even though it isn't there.

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas, it was its continuance which should have taught us its value. [It is wise to be grateful of what we have while we have it.]

I sometimes draw just for its own enjoyment.

There is nothing greater than enthusiasm.

The construction of the human figure, its tremendous variety of balance, of size, of rhythm, all those things make the human form much more difficult to get right in a drawing than anything else.

Discipline in art is a fundamental struggle to understand oneself, as much as to understand what one is drawing.

A piece of sculpture can have a hole through it and not be weakened if the hole is of a studied size, shape, and direction.

I'm very grateful that I was too poor to get to art school until I was 21. . . I was old enough when I got there to know how to get something out of it.

Talking about one's work releases the energy and tension to do and make.

One mustn't let technique be the consciously important thing. It should be at the service of expressing the form.

Our knowledge of shape and form remains, in general, a mixture of visual and of tactile experiences... A child learns about roundness from handling a ball far more than from looking at it.

Art is to make our lives richer and fuller.

Art is a continuous activity with no separation between past and present.

The first hole made through a piece of stone is a revelation.

Art is not to do with the practical side of making a living. It's to live a fuller human life.

All art is an abstraction to some degree.

I don't know of any good work of art that doesn't have a mystery.

I would like my work to be thought of as a celebration of life and nature.

What's important is finding out what works for you.

Abstraction means getting away from a visual interpretation but nearer to an emotional one.

Never think of the surface except as an extension of a volume.

People think that they see, but they don't.

All the arts are based on the senses. What they do for the person who practices them, and also the persons interested in them, is make that particular sense more active and more acute.

There is a right physical size for every idea.

There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.