Georgia O'Keeffe Quotes

I see no reason for painting anything that can be put into any other form as well.

The final test of a painting, theirs, mine, any other, is: does the painter's emotions come across?

I feel like vocals are to music what portraits are to painting. They're the humanity. Landscapes are good and fine, but at the end of the day everyone loves the Mona Lisa.

I don't have to come up with a ha-ha belly laugh every day, but drawings with warmth and love or ones that put a lump in the throat. That's more important to me than a laugh.

Music has always been profoundly important to me.

A painting is like a man. If you can live without it, then there isn't much point in having it.

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one why it matters to read.

I think that's the whole point of music - to inspire people.

The claims I'm making for art are simply the claims that we naturally make around music or around poetry. We're much more relaxed around those art forms. We're willing to ask, 'How could this find a place in my heart?'

Music has influenced my life and is one of the most treasured things for me. It speaks a universal language and for me, it is extremely important to stay connected to it.

My passion for painting is so sacred and personal to me.

When you walk past a painting in a museum, if it doesn't make you feel something, then it's probably a failure.

Draw things that have some meaning to you. An apple, what does it mean? The object drawn doesn't matter so much. It's what you feel about it, what it means to you. A masterpiece could be made of a dish of turnips.

If after I read a poem the world looks like that poem for 24 hours or so I'm sure it's a good one—and the same goes for paintings.

The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him.

Poetry is to a painting what life is to man.

Art isn't only a painting; it's anything that changes someone for the better, any nonanonymous interaction that leads to a human (not simply a commercial) conclusion.

Paintings are memories. Memories of the painter who painted them. Memories that can be shared as well. Paintings are things to remember things by.

An actor should take lessons from a painter and a sculptor.

Beauty plus pity -- that is the closest we can get to a definition of art.

If I feel a painting I'm working on doesn't have imagery or emotion, I paint it out and work over it until it does.

You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.

The beauty of Billie Holiday is that she gave every singer after her the license to interpret and perform music in ways that were unique to each of us. Her uniqueness was very much a part of the way she sang the songs, the story she wanted to tell through the songs. I didn't really have a full understanding of Billie until I left home -- until I'd lived a little, shall we say. At different seasons of my life, when I'd sing her songs or listen to her albums, I'd hear things I didn't hear before. Wherever you are in life, you'll hear different things in her songs.

In reality some images or drawings have a greater impact than many buildings that are built.

Performance is a vehicle for entering different worlds of experiencing.