Cy Twombly

“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.”

“I have my pace and way of living, and I'm not looking for something.”

“I was brought up to think you don't talk about yourself.”

“Virginia is a good start for Italy.”

“Graffiti is usually a protest - ink on walls - or has a reason for being naughty or aggressive.”

“I work in an impatient way.”

“White paint is my marble.”

“My parents were from New England. It's very funny, but when I grew up, you always had to say, 'Yes, ma'am' and 'Yes, sir.'”

“I'm not an abstractionist completely.”

“I look at a lot of artists. I'm inspired by - I suppose I shouldn't say 'inspired,' but it's not really influenced. I am inspired. Art comes from art.”

“It's absurd to talk about paintings that you haven't finished.”

“I would've liked to have been Poussin, if I'd had a choice, in another time.”

“I swear if I had to do this over again, I would just do the paintings and never show them.”

“Once I said to my mother: 'You would be happy if I just kept well-dressed and had good manners,' and she said: 'What else is there?'”

“To my mind, one does not put oneself in place of the past; one only adds a new link.”

“Graffiti is linear, and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls.”

“I used to change things in my early paintings to get the nuance or feeling I wanted, but now I plan everything in my head before I do it.”

“I don't work 9 to 5.”

“The Mediterranean is always just white, white, white.”

“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.”