What is creative is the seeking of perfection - and not attaining it.

- Semir Zeki

The Japanese, if I understand them, are masters of the unsaid and the unstated, of subtlety and ambiguity, all of which constitute powerful stimulant…

- Semir Zeki

As soon as your brain starts telling you that you can't have a tree that is blue then you stop being able to paint trees.

- Semir Zeki

The reaction was immediate. The blood flow was in proportion to how much the painting was liked.

- Semir Zeki

When politicians deny anything fiercely, there is a good chance that it will happen.

- Semir Zeki

Just let the artist sign an empty canvas or a frame, with the inscription, 'I had such and such a concept in mind' for this work. The artist then nee…

- Semir Zeki

Any artistic achievement that is tailored to conform to social demands rather than to the real, uninhibited, feelings of its creator, is destined not…

- Semir Zeki

No one would want to pay a penny for an empty canvas by me. But it would be quite another if the empty canvas were signed by a great artist. I would …

- Semir Zeki

I gather that the dopaminergic system in the reward centres of the brain respond even more vigorously to the expectation of reward than to reward its…

- Semir Zeki