Bridget Riley

“The pleasures of sight have one characteristic in common - they take you by surprise.”

“I used to build up to sensation, going through a logical process, to a point where I could feel in the paintings a sensation which was not of sight.”

“Looking is a pleasure. Looking is the pleasure.”

“For me nature is not landscape, but the dynamism of visual forces.”

“I couldn't get what I wanted by telling other people what to do. The whole point is that it's a discovery.”

“The music of colour, that's what I want.”

“Perception is the medium.”

“I have never studied the art of color. I have always been interested in the mechanics of color and how it works.”

“I started in black and white because I wanted to concentrate on the essentials, the energies of form and their relationships.”

“The eye is a restless, mobile, and above all, an adventurous thing.”

“Repetition acts as a sort of amplifier for the event.”

“What you see is not an illusion, it is a reality. The illusion is that your vision is static and stable.”

“My work is not a 'thing' but a 'process'.”

“I simply want to make things to be looked at.”

“Focusing isn't just an optical activity, it is also a mental one.”