Julian Schnabel Quotes

You know, painting has given me a lot of freedom, because for some reason, I’ve been able to paint things, organize things in a way that I see that don’t have any buffers or compromises in them.

Traditionally, photography is supposed to capture an event that has passed; but that is not what I’m looking for. Photography brings the past into the present when you look at it.

This camera works like photosynthesis. It is as if you were Xeroxing your own face. The pictures have such physicality: their surface is like fine leather, stained from chemicals. Each one has a body and is more than an image.

Some people must go to extremes to get the world in balance for themselves. Some can’t bear bright lights, so wherever they go they search for the dark; they turn the lights down, anything to sustain some level of comfort.

My early paintings weren’t that good – I was very influenced by Francis Bacon. But there was a kind of intensity there. And however influenced they may have been by other people, even my earliest paintings were recognisably my own.

It’s very difficult, I think, for people to be around you when you’re getting lots of attention. It’s very difficult for young people to understand what that’s about when people start treating you differently when you’ve been doing the same thing you were doing the day before.