Twombly Quotes & Sayings

I had my freedom and that was nice — Cy Twombly

Every line is the actual experience with its own unique story. — Cy Twombly

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

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

Graffiti is linear, and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls. — Cy Twombly

I don't work 9 to 5. — Cy Twombly

It's absurd to talk about paintings that you haven't finished. — Cy Twombly

I like rap music. But bragging about being rich to poor people is really offensive. I want to hear a rap song about buying a Cy Twombly painting or dating a museum curator. I want to hear about that kind of rich. — John Waters

I do probably come down a little hard on a group of people I call the 'blue chip gays.' I mean people who have managed to become very, very famous and are still very famous partly through staying in the closet, like Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Susan Sontag, Harold Brodkey and others. — Edmund White

I work in an impatient way. — Cy Twombly

I never really separated painting and literature. — Cy Twombly

Graffiti is usually a protest - ink on walls - or has a reason for being naughty or aggressive. — Cy Twombly

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

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?' — Cy Twombly

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. — Cy Twombly

Virginia is a good start for Italy. — Cy Twombly

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. — Cy Twombly

White paint is my marble. — Cy Twombly

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

I would've liked to have been Poussin, if I'd had a choice, in another time. — Cy Twombly

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.' — Cy Twombly

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

I'm not an abstractionist completely. — Cy Twombly

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

Her eyes traveled down the black T-shirt he wore. Pfft, he might as well be naked. It clung to him like a second skin giving her a clear view of lean, hard muscles. She licked her lips. Gods, what it would feel like to be his T-shirt. She was positive if he turned around his ass would be considered a lethal weapon in those jeans. — Valerie Twombly

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

Twombly, frankly, was an acquired taste. I was not in love with Twombly the first time I saw one of his paintings. — Eli Broad

The Mediterranean is always just white, white, white. — Cy Twombly

We are about to understand, but have not yet understood. This moment is important because it generally does not lie up to its promise. We abandon the process of reflection. Not much of a decision about the personal meaning of love, justice or success is achieved, and we move on to something else. Looking at Twombly's painting assists us in a crucial thought: 'The part of me that wonders about important questions and then gets confused has not had enough recognition — Alain De Botton

I have my pace and way of living, and I'm not looking for something. — Cy Twombly

I was brought up to think you don't talk about yourself. — Cy Twombly

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

My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it. — Jean-Michel Basquiat

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

I swear if I had to do this over again, I would just do the paintings and never show them. — Cy Twombly