Georgia O'Keeffe > Quotes

“I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

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

“Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.”
― 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.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe, Georgia O'Keeffe

“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

“I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary--you're happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“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.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for a moment.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

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

“I can't live where I want to, I can't go where I want to go, I can't do what I want to, I can't even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I decided to accept as true my own thinking.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“My first memory is of light -- the brightness of light -- light all around.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I'm frightened all the time. But I never let it stop me. Never!”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“To create one's own world takes courage.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“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. I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught. ”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“One day a hummingbird flew in--
It fluttered against the window til I got it down where I could reach it with an open umbrella--
--When I had it in my hand it was so small I couldn't believe I had it--but I could feel the intense life--so intense and so tiny--
...You were like the humming bird to me...
And I am rather inclined to feel that you and I know the best part of one another without spending much time together--
--It is not that I fear the knowing--
It is that I am at this moment willing to let you be what you are to me--it is beautiful and pure and very intensely alive.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“One cannot 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.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I hate flowers.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“You are one of my nicest thoughts.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“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.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

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

“I said to myself 'I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me--shapes and idea so near to my-- so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down.' I decided to start anew to strip away what I had been taught...”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“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.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I got half-a-dozen paintings from that shattered plate.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“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.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe

“I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then.”
― Georgia O'Keeffe