I think my work is very American because I'm American. But I found that Europeans like uncertainty and doubt. Carl Andre More Quotes by Carl Andre More Quotes From Carl Andre It is futile for an artist to try to create an environment because you have an environment around you all the time. Any living organism has an environment. Carl Andre environment artist trying You might say that a creative person is a person who simply has a desire to have something, to add something to the world that's not there yet, and goes about arranging fort that to happen. When you desire a work of art and make it, you've added to the stock of art in the world. Artists are one of the people who can do that: add to the stock of things. Carl Andre creative people art You could own coins but you couldn't have bars of gold. We were on the gold standard. I think it was Nixon who took us off the gold standard. Carl Andre bars gold thinking Artists tend to be beyond embarrassment the way little children tend to be beyond embarrassment. Carl Andre artist littles children That's wonderful, but my mind has been destroyed by alcohol. Carl Andre alcohol mind wonderful SoHo was called Hell's Hundred Acres because it was full of sweatshops - without fire escapes. Completely not up to code. Every once in a while, these buildings would burn and 26 Puerto Ricans would be killed. Carl Andre soho acres fire 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. Carl Andre used artist firsts What I made depended on what I found on the street. At least in the beginning, my materials came from the street. Carl Andre streets found made I was hanging out and drinking as long as I could afford it, or as long as somebody else could afford it. Carl Andre hanging-out drinking long Look at the chaos of European history. Europeans cannot believe in certainty. But Americans believe in certainty. Americans think this can go on like this forever. Just as it is. No change. Carl Andre forever believe thinking It seems with progress you gain certain things and you lose certain things. The automobile replaced the horse and buggy but you lost all of that nice manure. Carl Andre progress horse nice Money is a very complicated problem. The history of money is very curious. Carl Andre curious problem complicated People are always trading their excess for somebody else's excess. One country has a lot of aluminum so they trade aluminum for sugar. It's the law of supply and demand. Carl Andre law country people I'm a feminist. I've always been in favor of women. Carl Andre feminist favors I grew up in a brick house. What's wrong with bricks? An Englishman took me aside and said, "You have to understand, all the bricklayers in England are Irish, and the English hate the Irish." Carl Andre bricks hate house I believe that woman are superior to men. Carl Andre i-believe men believe 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. Carl Andre variation limits people I never drove a car in my life. Given my drinking habits in those days, I would have been dead a long time ago - stumbling out of a bar at 4 a.m. and getting into a car. Carl Andre car drinking long The girls you picked up from the bars were not the girls you took home to mother. Carl Andre girl mother home I didn't like men, but I liked women. Carl Andre men
