Quotes from Elizabeth Peyton

There's something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. That's something I wanted in my paintings.

No one is famous when they wake up in the morning, so it's nice seeing people in moments when they're just being themselves.

A painting of a person can be descriptive, but for me it's about all the things that make up a picture - the feelings, the brushstrokes - more than describing somebody. People latch on to the personalities when they talk about my work and forget the other parts.

The faces people make when they are photographed and the face they have when you draw them are very different.

Romanticism is not just about being in a fixed state of endless beauty, because you can't live like that or live on that, that's what I've learnt.

In 19th-century France, artists were part of government. Artists are very sensitive to their time. They're very thoughtful people - it makes sense to hear what they have to say.

I think everybody can be beautiful. Anybody can have beauty. It's about how you look at the world, in a way, and how you treat yourself.

I think little things are more powerful because they're more honest, so people feel them more strongly.

You really need faith in yourself to make art and to stand up for what you believe in.

If art is any good, it has so much of a longer trajectory than one night. Contemporary art is separate from art openings. In the end, it depends on the strength of ideas in each piece.

To paint well, I need to be enraptured by my subjects.