Quotes from Georgia O'Keeffe

I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at—not copy it.

I find that I have painted my life—things happening in my life—without knowing.

Nobody sees a flower really it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.

It's not enough to be nice in life. You've got to have nerve.

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.

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.

I wish people were all trees and I think I could enjoy them then.

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.

To create one's own world takes courage.

You are one of my nicest thoughts.

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.

I'm frightened all the time. But I never let it stop me. Never!

Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.

Someone else's vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it 'cause in the end it's all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself.

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.

The morning is the best time, there are no people around. My pleasant disposition likes the world with nobody in it.

The unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel the world is big fat beyond my understanding – to understand maybe by trying to put it into form. To find the feeling of infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill.

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment.

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.

I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.

I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way- things I had no words for.

I feel there is something unexplored about woman that only a woman can explore.

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...