Marilyn Minter

“All my work is about how it feels to look.”

“In the late '80s, I think my vision was chasing people out of the room. Nobody else thought like this. I was really this pro-sex feminist.”

“I still don't feel like I've made it. I can't imagine ever feeling like I've made it.”

“My work is about the world I live in. So, I sort of make a picture of my life or our lives. I'm always looking for something that is overlooked, so I need to constantly be aware of what's going on.”

“Any artist who sticks around in the public awareness for more than 20 years usually has something unique to say.”

“I'm from the South; there's been such progress since I was young, with racism, with feminism. The environment is next.”

“I take things that already exist and just push them.”

“When I see an artist whose work I like at a party - I'm old now, so I can do this - I go right over and tell them how much I like their work. Instantly, I'm on their side. The act of saying it takes away the competition. The act of saying it makes me not hate them anymore, because they're good.”

“I think there's still this huge glass ceiling for women owning sexuality. And especially young women. If you're an old lady like me, I can do anything now.”

“I work in a studio with lots of young people, most of whom are my former students. We delight in trading YouTube videos! We all stop working to watch them. I'm totally addicted to anything with kittens and puppies, but 'Very Scared Kid' is one of my favorites.”

“When Photoshop came around, I thought I'd died and went to heaven. When I hear artists say, 'Oh, the good old days' or 'I'm old school,' I just want to puke. There's no tool I won't use.”

“I'm an animal-rights person, actually. Big time.”

“The thrill of a photo-realist painter is if you get really close to the painting, it looks just like a photograph. Whereas in my case, if you get close to my paintings, they totally fall apart - so I'm about as far from a photo-realist as it gets.”

“Success can be destructive to the creative process. I say it all the time: success is as dangerous as total failure.”

“I love the idea of making images of the parts of the body that we all have but that no one pays attention to, like the soft area underneath your nose.”

“You know when women look their best? When they're in love.”

“I really don't own any jewelry. I paint it, but I'm not a consumer. I buy art - that's all I want.”

“I am an illusionist. That's why I create art.”

“The fashion world is 10,000 times more superficial than the art world. Fashion people are so much crazier than art-world people. They are constantly trying to leech from the art world, but they will never be able to do what we do.”

“I always say, 'Perfection is the flaw. It doesn't exist.' I saw something somewhere about 'porcelain pores' - you're not even allowed to have pores anymore!”