Having to be different is the same trap as having to be the same. Robert Rauschenberg More Quotes by Robert Rauschenberg More Quotes From Robert Rauschenberg If I declare it to be so, then this is a portrait. Robert Rauschenberg portraits ifs You wait until life is in the frame, then you have the permission to click. I like the adventure of waiting until the whole frame is full. Robert Rauschenberg life-is waiting adventure Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it. Robert Rauschenberg aerospace painting familiar This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so. Robert Rauschenberg portraits irises ifs I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities and a way of making a painting, say, in just one painting or two paintings. Robert Rauschenberg want two way And I think that even today, New York still has more of this unexpected quality around every corner than any place else. It's something quite extraordinary Robert Rauschenberg quality new-york thinking Sometimes I have taken photographs and just felt so excited that I could barely hold the camera steady, and the photo was boring. Robert Rauschenberg cameras taken sometimes This telegram is a work of art if I say it is. Robert Rauschenberg telegrams works-of-art art There was something about the self-confession and self-confusion of Abstract expressionism - as though the man and the work were the same - that personally always put me off because at that time my focus was in the opposite direction. Robert Rauschenberg self opposites men For the first time, I wasn't embarrassed by the look of beauty, of elegance, because when you see someone who has only one rag as their property, but it happens to be beautiful and pink and silk, beauty doesn't have to be separated... I have always said that you shouldn't have biases, you shouldn't have prejudices. But before that [before his trip to India, circa 1975] I'd never been able to use purple, because it was too beautiful. Robert Rauschenberg purple india beautiful The working process is ideally freeing my mind. Robert Rauschenberg process mind People ask me, 'Don't you ever run out of ideas?' Well, on the first place, I don't use ideas. Every time I have an idea, it's too limiting and usually turns out to be a disappointment. But I haven't run out of curiosity. Robert Rauschenberg me you time people I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it, then I stop. At the time that I am bored or understand - I use those words interchangeably - another appetite has formed. A lot of people try to think up ideas. I'm not one. I'd rather accept the irresistible possibilities of what I can't ignore. Robert Rauschenberg i-am work time people Anything you do will be an abuse of somebody else's aesthetics. I think you're born an artist or not. I couldn't have learned it. And I hope I never do because knowing more only encourages your limitations. Robert Rauschenberg never think you hope If you're going to paint extremely, you need a big piece of canvas. Robert Rauschenberg need big you canvas Photography has always been a major part of my vision: my excuse for meddling with what the world looks like. Robert Rauschenberg always vision looks world Pollock also... wanted one to be wrapped in the painting. Robert Rauschenberg wrapped also painting wanted Oracle was I had started it I guess two and a half years ago, maybe even longer than that, closer to three. Robert Rauschenberg three half two years One can see that a canvas is six feet by eight feet, say, quite accurately. But you can spend two minutes and think it's five, or thirty seconds and it's just a different bed for activities there. Robert Rauschenberg see think you feet