I have the freedom of seeing it [churches and paintings of saints] with a non-Catholic eye without the guilt. Nan Goldin More Quotes by Nan Goldin More Quotes From Nan Goldin I'm not ashamed of my body and you know everything in the fashion world, if I was vulnerable to it, could drive me crazy. I think it produces so much self-hatred. Nan Goldin fashion crazy thinking I remember so many girls when I was growing up who hated the way they looked. Nan Goldin growing-up girl way Usually people just do their own work. But I want to deal with the place and what it means to show in a mental hospital. Nan Goldin want mean people I've got really prolific since I moved to Paris where I am living permanently, for the rest of my life, until I find another idea. I have really close women friends here: Valerie, Raymonde, not Joana so much, Maria Schneider, who was always a real heroine of mine who and has now become a close friend. Nan Goldin paris real ideas My work is received more intelligently in Europe. Nan Goldin europe Gena Rowlands is fabulous. Nan Goldin fabulous The only time I went out was to go to bars at night and all the pictures were taken with a flash because there was no light at all. However now I'm very interested in light. Nan Goldin light taken night When I started photographing my boyfriend of years ago, Brian, I realised I had no right to photograph other people having sex if I wasn't prepared to take them of myself too Nan Goldin sex people years I'm very much interested in water and women in water. I've been photographing that for years although I didn't really know it at the time. Nan Goldin knows water years I was recently interviewed for radio in relation to the "Thanksgiving" show [2001] at the Saatchi gallery that I was part of. The interviewer said that people in London were very disturbed that I showed a picture of myself battered ("Nan One Month after Being Battered", 1984) and they thought that I set it up. I was accused of deliberately putting on a wig for that particular picture. Nan Goldin wigs radio people No Jews have our own guilt, that's why we have psychiatrists - the Jewish version of a priest. Nan Goldin jew priests guilt That's where I got the idea to paint the walls of the gallery with varied colours [at the Whitechapel show]. I tried to figure out how all these Renaissance paintings manage to work together. Nan Goldin wall working-together ideas I start to paint my walls. And I'm heavily influenced by films. Nan Goldin wall paint film [John] Cassavetes, "Killing of a Chinese Booker", "Opening Night" are my favourites. Nan Goldin chinese killing night [I influenced by ]the work of early [Michelangelo] Antonioni, Orson Welles and [Carlo] Pasolini, I love [Nicolas Jack] Roeg's film "Performance". Nan Goldin film performances I love all the Hollywood women. I saw all the films when I was a teenager. Jack Smith's "Flaming Creatures". Nan Goldin teenager saws hollywood I like it [Rotterdam] much better than Amsterdam which is too much like a postcard. It's too cute for me. Rotterdam is more real, it's got a stomach. Nan Goldin amsterdam real cute When I put my big retrospective together in '96 [for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York], I saw that there were all these pictures of people inside looking out. All these pictures of women in water and mirrors. I don't know what it means. Nan Goldin new-york mean art