“There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself; it revolved around words like 'tortured', 'struggle'. 'pain'… I could never see these qualities in paint – I could see them in life and art that illustrates life. But I could not see such conflicts in the materials and I knew that it had to be in the attitude of the painter.”

—  Robert Rauschenberg

Source: 21st Century, Robert Rauschenberg, Works, Writings and Interviews, 2006, p. 37

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself; it revolved around words like 'tortured', 'stru…" by Robert Rauschenberg?
Robert Rauschenberg photo
Robert Rauschenberg 47
American artist 1925–2008

Related quotes

Harper Lee photo

“You see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Charlaine Harris photo

“I had never realized a woman could have to struggle to keep her hands off a man, but here I was, digging my nails into my palms, staring at the inside of my eyelids as though I could maybe see through them if I peered hard enough.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead to the World

Source: Dead to the World

Patti Smith photo

“But secretly I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revalation that human beings create art, that to be an artist was to see what others could not.”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

Amy Tan photo

“Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club (1989), Ch. 2, pg. 48

Alexander Pope photo

“I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)

Mary Cassatt photo

“I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his [Degas'] art. It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”

Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) American painter and printmaker

Quote, c. 1875; as cited by Nancy Mowll Mathews, in Mary Cassatt: A Life, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998, p. 114 - ISBN 978-0-585-36794-1
Cassatt admired Edgar Degas, whose pastels had made a powerful impression on her when she encountered them in an art dealer's window in Paris, 1875

Kobe Bryant photo

“Each moment of my life I was dreaming of how great I could be, and continued working hard. Each time I closed my eyes I could see me shining bright like a sun.”

Kobe Bryant (1978–2020) American basketball player
Xiaolu Guo photo

“I could only see myself making a living through writing, as I had done in China. But should I write in Chinese here, a foreign land, or enrol in a language class and study English grammar? If I continued to write in Chinese I would have no readers here. Besides, I would never create a community of fellow artists and thinkers in my Western life while speaking Chinese.”

Xiaolu Guo (1973) Chinese-British novelist and film director

Once Upon A Time in the East: A Story of Growing up, Chatto & Windus, 2017, page 259 (ISBN 9781784740689).
Memoir, 2017

“He [Finny] had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.”

John Knowles book A Separate Peace

Gene, on his weakness.
Source: A Separate Peace (1959), P. 59

Related topics