David Rockefeller

If necessity is the mother of invention, discontent is the father of progress.

When you have a lot of resources, the most important thing is to have had good parents and to have been brought up by people who gave one the proper values.

I think I am basically a happy person.

The conventional notions of art have changed, and a lot of things done today are considered works of art that would have been rejected in the past.

The Japanese have a wonderful sense of design and a refinement in their art. They try to produce beautiful paintings with the minimum number of strokes.

When I see something I like, I buy it, but I do not look for it madly.

One of the things about creativity is you can be in denial about these things. When I found out I had cancer, there were four hours in which I was pounding my head on the marble kitchen top saying, “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it.” But then I felt as if this little army in uniform was flooding me. They had come to help me fight it. I felt really strong about it after that. It was one of the strongest periods of my life.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

I don’t want to put too many boxes on it because the work speaks louder than words.

Truth exists in art.

I think of art as the highest level of creativity. To me, it is one of the greatest sources of enjoyment.

There’s no collection that has a better representation of post-war American art than David Geffen’s.

An artist can only be evaluated after he’s dead. At the 11th hour he might do something that will eclipse everything else.

MoMA is doubling its space, and I decided to raise the money for it.

From my point of view, which is that of a storyteller, I see your life as already artful, waiting, just waiting and ready for you to make it art.

They decided to establish a museum of modern art where works by contemporary artists would be shown. Mother was viewed as a very progressive person, and not everybody liked the paintings she bought.

I cry out for order and find it only in art.

Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.

The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

I’m terribly intuitive-I always thought I was intellectual about what I do, but I’ve come to the realization that I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing half the time.