Edward Hopper Quotes

Quotes about:

• If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Creative, Would Be

  Ray Spangenburg, Kit Moser, Edward Hopper, Diane Moser (2002). “Edward Hopper: The Life of an Artist”, Enslow Pub Incorporated

  62 Copy quote

• No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Aquariums, Imagination

  Edward Hopper, Hayward Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art (1981). “Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Hayward Gallery, London, 11 February to 29 March 1981 : a selection from the exhibition Edward Hopper, the art and the artist held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from 16 September 1980 to 25 January 1981”

  57 Copy quote

• Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Expression, Vision

  Edward Hopper, Hayward Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art (1981). “Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Hayward Gallery, London, 11 February to 29 March 1981 : a selection from the exhibition Edward Hopper, the art and the artist held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from 16 September 1980 to 25 January 1981”

  57 Copy quote

• It's (the lack of communication between the people in his paintings, ed.) probably a reflection of my own, if I may say, loneliness. I don't know. It could be the whole human condition.

  Edward Hopper

  Loneliness, Communication, Reflection

  38 Copy quote

• The only quality that endures in art is a personal vision of the world. Methods are transient: personality is enduring.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Personality, Vision

  42 Copy quote

• I guess I'm not very human. All I really want to do is paint light on the side of a house.

  Edward Hopper

  Light, House, Want

  42 Copy quote

• More of me comes out when I improvise.

  Edward Hopper

  54 Copy quote

• In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Character, People

  Quoted in Anatole Broyard Aroused by Books (1974).

  28 Copy quote

• To me the most important thing is the sense of going on. You know how beautiful things are when you're traveling.

  Edward Hopper

  Beautiful, Important, Know How

  "Sao Paulo 9 Edward Hopper and Environment U.S.A. 1957-1967" by William C. Seitz, 1967.

  32 Copy quote

• My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impression of nature.

  Edward Hopper

  Artist, Painting, Intimate

  Edward Hopper, Hayward Gallery, Whitney Museum of American Art (1981). “Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Hayward Gallery, London, 11 February to 29 March 1981 : a selection from the exhibition Edward Hopper, the art and the artist held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from 16 September 1980 to 25 January 1981”

  17 Copy quote

• So many people say painting is fun. I don't find it fun at all. It's hard work for me.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Fun, Hard Work

  22 Copy quote

• The only real influence I've ever had was myself.

  Edward Hopper

  Real, Influence

  Ita G. Berkow, Edward Hopper (1996). “Edward Hopper: An American Master”, Smithmark Publishers

  18 Copy quote

• What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.

  Edward Hopper

  House, Sides, Sunlight

  Carl Little, Edward Hopper (1993). “Edward Hopper's New England”, p.8, Pomegranate

  16 Copy quote

• One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the intellect for a pristine imaginative conception. The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design. The term 'life' as used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it applies all of its existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it. Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again be great.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Color, Design

  6 Copy quote

• I once got a little camera to use for details of architecture and so forth but the photo was always so different from the perspective the eye gives, I gave it up.

  Edward Hopper

  Eye, Giving, Perspective

  6 Copy quote

• There is a sort of elation about sunlight on the upper part of a house.

  Edward Hopper

  House, Elation, Sunlight

  24 Copy quote

• When I don't feel in the mood for painting I go to the movies for a week or more. I go on a regular movie binge!

  Edward Hopper

  Goes On, Painting, Week

  4 Copy quote

• The idea (for the painting 'Room in New York', 1932, ed.) had been in my mind a long time before I painted it. It was suggested by glimpses of lighted interiors seen as I walked along city streets at night, probably near the district where I live (Washington Square, New York, fh) although it's no particular street or house, but is really a synthesis of many impressions.

  Edward Hopper

  New York, Night, Squares

  21 Copy quote

• I have tried to present my sensations in what is the most congenial and impressive form possible to me.

  Edward Hopper

  Artist, Form, Impressive

  Ita G. Berkow, Edward Hopper (1996). “Edward Hopper: An American Master”, Smithmark Publishers

  22 Copy quote

• So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect. But these are things for the psychologist to untangle.

  Edward Hopper

  Art, Expression, Important

  "Edward Hopper". Book by Lloyd Goodrich, p. 164, 1971.

  7 Copy quote

• There will be, I think, an attempt to grasp again the surprise and accidents of nature and a more intimate and sympathetic study of its moods, together with a renewed wonder and humility on the part of such as are still capable of these basic reactions.

  Edward Hopper

  Humility, Artist, Thinking

  "Oral history interview with Edward Hopper". Interview with John Morse, www.aaa.si.edu. June 17, 1959.

  15 Copy quote

• Well, I've always been interested in approaching a big city in a train, and I can't exactly describe the sensations, but they're entirely human and perhaps have nothing to do with aesthetics.

  Edward Hopper

  Artist, Cities, Bigs

  24 Copy quote

• Well, I have a very simple method of painting.

  Edward Hopper

  Simple, Painting, Method

  "Oral history interview with Edward Hopper". Interview with John Morse, www.aaa.si.edu. June 17, 1959.

  9 Copy quote

• After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.

  Edward Hopper

  Character, Trying, Inheritance

  "Oral history interview with Edward Hopper". Interview with John Morse, www.aaa.si.edu. June 17, 1959.

  8 Copy quote

• I believe that the great painters with their intellect as master have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record of their emotions.

  Edward Hopper

  Believe, Records, Emotion

  Edward Hopper, Adam D. Weinberg, Richard R. Brettell, Whitney Museum of American Art (1993). “Hopper in Paris: June 23-September 19, 1993, collection in context”

  9 Copy quote

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