Carl Andre Quotations

I was one of the first post-studio artists. I used to do my works in the streets. I used to find them in the streets, and I used to leave them in the streets.

I was never good at painting. The great turning point came when I had a block of wood and I carved a shape into the wood and put a small piece of timber into that space - like a negative - and so it made an endless column, only inward.

Americans understand better than the Europeans and the English that any publicity is good.

I never stopped doing what I did as a child.

I think it was Henry Moore who was asked where he got his ideas for his sculptures, and he said something like, "I continue to do as an adult the things I did as a child." I think that's what art is about.

You can always find somebody to beat up. This goes back to the schoolyard. Most men would think, Don't chum with girls. But I chummed with girls.

Why carve? It's a better sculpture that way. I'll never improve the block. So I just started using uncarved blocks.

Once you turn something into something, its universal usage is over.

My works have always been unjoined. People were always making variations of my works, and I just said, "I don't want to know." You can't put limits on those pieces. You can't be there all of the time when they're installed.

What I made depended on what I found on the street. At least in the beginning, my materials came from the street.