Home > Author > Georgia O'Keeffe
41 " Anyone with any degree of mental toughness ought to be able to exist without the things they like most for a few months at least. "
― Georgia O'Keeffe
42 " I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to ... I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-- things I had no words for. "
43 " I wish so much to go that I almost wish I had never been there. "
44 " It is only by selection, by elimination, and by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things. "
45 " When I look over the photographs Stieglitz took of me-some of them more than sixty years ago-I wonder who that person is. It is as if in my one life I have lived many lives. If the person in the photographs were living in this world today, she would be quite a different person-but it doesn't matter-Stieglitz photographed her then. "
46 " Come quickly. You mustn’t miss the dawn. It will never be just like this again. "
47 " I do not like the idea of happyness — it is too momentary — I would say that I was always busy and interested in something — interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happyness. "
48 " The skulls were there and I could say something with them. To me they are as beautiful as anything I know. To me they are strangely more living than the animals walking around -- hair, eyes and all, with the tails switching. The bones seem to cut sharply to the center of something that is keenly alive on the desert even though it is vast and empty and untouchable-- and knows no kindness with all its beauty. "
49 " You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare. "
50 " You paint from your subject, not what you see…I rarely paint anything I don’t know very well. It was surprising to me to see how many people separate the objective from the abstract. Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or a tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they say something. For me that is the very basis of painting. The abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can only clarify in paint. "
51 " I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.Georgia O'Keeffe "
52 " I am divided between my man and a life with him---and some thing of the outdoors---of your world---that is in my blood---and that I know I will never get rid of--- I have to get along with my divided self the best way I can--- "
53 " I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see--and I don't. "
54 " RE: Lake George from a book by Lord. That's all I know."There is something so perfect about the mountains and the lake and the trees.... sometimes I want to tear it all to pieces "
55 " …and I’m disgusted with dreams now — I want real things — live people to take hold of — to see — and to talk to — music that makes holes in the sky. "
56 " To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time. "
57 " My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it. (Life, March 1, 1968) "
58 " to Russell Vernon HunterNew YorkSpring 1932My dear Vernon HunterYour letter gives me such a vivid picture of some thing I love in space — love almost as passionately as I can love a person — that I am almost tempted to pack my little bag and go — but I will not go to it right this morning — No matter how much I love it — There is some thing in me that must finish jobs once started — when I can —.So I am here — and what you write of me is thereThe cockscomb is here too — I put it in much cold water and it came to life from a kind of flatness it had in the box when I opened it — tho it was very beautiful as it lay in the box a bit wilted when I opened it —. I love it — Thank you.I must confess to you — that I even have the desire to go into old Mexico — that I would have gone — undoubtedly — if it were only myself that I considered — You are wise — so wise — in staying in your own country that you know and love — I am divided between my man and a life with him — and some thing of the outdoors — of your world — that is in my blood — and that I know I will never get rid of — I have to get along with my divided self the best way I can —.So give my greetings to the sun and the sky — and the wind — and the dry never ending land—SincerelyGeorgia O'Keeffe "
59 " Living out here has just meant happiness. Sometimes I think I'm half-mad with love for this place. "
60 " Someone else’s vision will never be as good as you own vision of yourself. Live and die with it, because in the end, that’s all you have. Lose it and lose yourself and everything else. "