Quotes from Leonora Carrington

You don't decide to paint. It's like getting hungry and going to the kitchen to eat. It's a need, not a choice.

I suppose what I believe in is peaceful anarchy.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I won a helicopter in a crossword puzzle competition? There is not much hope though I am afraid, as they never give such practical prizes.

One is born, one lives, one dies. What death is, I don't know.

In the political confusion and the torrid heat, I convinced myself that Madrid was the world's stomach and that I had been chosen for the task of restoring this digestive organ to health.

I never eat meat as I think it is wrong to deprive animals of their life when they are so difficult to chew anyway.

Sentimentality is a form of fatigue.

I have always thought - and a lot of people won't agree with this - that we're incredibly driven by fear, basically. Aren't we? It's awful to be frightened. I think it's a very strong, very powerful thing, fear.

I didn't have time to be anyone's muse... I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist.

I hated being in a convent. It's another form of power. Manipulation. Because who can say - one God for the whole universe? I think there must be millions of gods! And they're not all of them very nice.

Everyone's had an interesting life. Unless they're interested in business or something.

I didn't have time to be anybody's muse; I was too busy rebelling against my parents and learning to be an artist.

I am as mysterious to myself as I am mysterious to others.

What would anyone want to write about me for? I'm just an old lady.

How could I write this when I don't even dare think about it? I am terribly anguished, yet I cannot continue living alone with such a memory...I know that once this has been written down, I shall be delivered. You must know, otherwise I shall be persecuted to the end of my living days. But shall I be able to express with mere words the horror of that day?

My head is a bier for my thoughts, my body a coffin.

On the outskirts of our sad savage town, I was overcome by a feeling of profound melancholy, though I fought it off by stuffing a large amount of jasmine essence up my nose.

With shrieks of adoration it flung itself on human breasts, 'to crush you, to suck your life away. I cannot drag my own weight over the crust of the earth so you must carry me on your back so that in time you will be crippled with my weight.' These words are in every heart in the mating season.

How can anybody be a person of quality if they wash away their ghosts with common sense?

Do not fear those who bear you ill will, they soon shall fall in shame," read Georgina, cackling with mirth.

Even though you won't believe me my story is beautiful And the serpent that sang it Sang it from out of the well.

I didn't have time to be anyone's muse... I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist.

A Brotherhood with the grim knowledge of what is better for other people and the iron determination to better them whether they like it or not.

Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.