Cy Twombly quotes:

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

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.'

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

Graffiti is linear and it's done with a pencil, and it's like writing on walls. But in my paintings it's more lyrical.

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

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.

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

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.

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?'

The Mediterranean is always just white, white, white.

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.

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.

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

I had my freedom and that was nice

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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.

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

I never really separated painting and literature.

I wouldâ??ve liked to have been Poussin, if Iâ??d had a choice, in another time

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.