Cy Twombly Quotes

• It's instinctive in a certain kind of painting...It's like a nervous system. It's not described, it's happening. The feeling is going on with the task. The line is the feeling, from a soft thing, a dreamy thing, to something hard, something arid, something lonely, something ending, something beginning.

  Cy Twombly

  Lonely, Feelings, Lines

  80 Copy quote

• Every line is the actual experience with its own unique story.

  Cy Twombly

  Unique, Stories, Lines

  57 Copy quote

• I sit for two or three hours and then in 15 minutes I can do a painting, but that's part of it. You have to get ready and decide to jump up and do it; you build yourself up psychologically, and so painting has no time for brush. Brush is boring, you give it and all of a sudden it's dry, you have to go. Before you cut the thought, you know?

  Cy Twombly

  Inspirational, Time, Art

  "What Makes art, Art?" by Amber Kane, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 13, 2016.

  104 Copy quote

• I never really separated painting and literature.

  Cy Twombly

  Literature, Painting

  28 Copy quote

• When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time.

  Cy Twombly

  Art, Preparation, Length

  "'I work in waves'". Interview With Nicholas Serota, www.theguardian.com. June 3, 2008.

  32 Copy quote

• I had my freedom and that was nice.

  Cy Twombly

  Nice

  "I work in waves". Interview with Nicholas Serota, www.theguardian.com. June 3, 2008.

  42 Copy quote

• And we who have always thought of happiness climbing, would feel the emotion that almost startles when happiness falls.

  Cy Twombly

  Fall, Climbing, Emotion

  Cy Twombly, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1987). “Cy Twombly: Bilder, Arbeiten auf Papier, Skulpturen”

  32 Copy quote

• I work in waves, because I'm impatient. Because of a certain physicality, of lack of breath from standing. It has to be done and I do take liberties I wouldn't have taken before.

  Cy Twombly

  Taken, Liberty, Done

  "I work in waves". Interview with Nicholas Serota, www.theguardian.com. June 3, 2008.

  28 Copy quote

• I listed to Tchaikovsky. He is both kitsch and profound. I love that lack of "Good taste."

  Cy Twombly

  Tchaikovsky, Profound, Kitsch

  "Kitsch art: love it or loathe it?" by Jonathan Jones, www.theguardian.com. January 28, 2013.

  23 Copy quote

• Paint is something that I use with my hands and do all those tactile things. I really don't like oil because you can't get back into it, or you make a mess. It's not my favourite thing - pencil is more my medium than wet paint.

  Cy Twombly

  Hands, Oil, Use

  "I work in waves". Interview with Nicholas Serota, www.theguardian.com. June 3, 2008.

  24 Copy quote

• Graffiti is linear and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls. But in my paintings it's more lyrical.

  Cy Twombly

  Wall, Writing, Graffiti

  "'I work in waves'". Interview With Nicholas Serota, www.theguardian.com. June 3, 2008.

  17 Copy quote

• I hate roses. Don't you? It's all right if you can hide them in a cutting garden, but I think a rose garden is the height of ick.

  Cy Twombly

  Hate, Cutting, Garden

  29 Copy quote

• I love my sculptures, and I was lucky I had them for 50 years because no one would look at them and I really liked having them around.

  Cy Twombly

  Years, Lucky, Looks

  20 Copy quote

• I would’ve liked to have been Poussin, if I’d had a choice, in another time.

  Cy Twombly

  Choices, Another Time, Has Beens

  "Cy Twombly and Nicolas Poussin: the odd couple" by Julian Bell, www.theguardian.com. July 8, 2011.

  24 Copy quote

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