Georgia O'Keeffe

“Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”

“I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.”

“I said to myself, I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down.”

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”

“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone taught me — shapes and ideas so near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking.”

“One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.”

“Sun-bleached bones were most wonderful against the blue - that blue that will always be there as it is now after all man's destruction is finished.”

“My first memory is of light -- the brightness of light -- light all around.”

“Anyone who doesn't feel the crosses simply doesn't get that country.”

“To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.”

“The days you work are the best days.”

“I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”

“I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.”

“It was in the 1920s, when nobody had time to reflect, that I saw a still-life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it.”

“It's not enough to be nice in life. You've got to have nerve.”

“Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.”