It is not so much where my motivation comes from but rather how it manages to survive. Louise Bourgeois More Quotes by Louise Bourgeois More Quotes From Louise Bourgeois The colour blue - that is my colour - and the colour blue means you have left the drabness of day-to-day reality to be transported into - not a world of fantasy, it’s not a world of fantasy - but a world of freedom where you can say what you like and what you don’t like. This has been expressed forever by the colour blue, which is really sky blue. Louise Bourgeois bluemeanreality The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone. Louise Bourgeois lonelylonelinessartist To be an artist, you need to exist in a world of silence. Louise Bourgeois silenceartistneeds Women had to work like slaves in the art world, but a lot of men got to the top through their charm. And it hurt them. To be young and pretty didn't help a woman in the art world, because the social scene, and the buying scene, was in the hands of women - women who had money. They wanted male artists who would come alone and be their charming guests. Rothko could be very charming. It was a court. And the artist buffoons came to the court to entertain, to charm. Now it has changed, now the younger men are in - older women and younger men. Louise Bourgeois hurtmenart Clothing is . . . an exercise in memory. It makes me explore the past: how did I feel when I wore that. They are like signposts in the search for the past. Louise Bourgeois exercisememoriesart I always had the fear of being separated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole. Louise Bourgeois abandonedwholetogether I have kept a diary as long as I can remember, and drawings are really another kind of diary. Louise Bourgeois drawingdiarieslong If you are resentful, you keep the thing alive. So the way to go on is to get rid of it, in order to forgive in order to forget. Louise Bourgeois forgivinggoes-onorder Art is manipulation without intervention. Louise Bourgeois manipulationart-isart My art is a form of restoration in terms of my feelings to myself and to others. Louise Bourgeois restorationfeelingsart If you flatter me, or if you look at me the right way, I will kill myself to please you. It's very painful to be an overachiever. Louise Bourgeois painfullooksway You must put the essence of what you want to say into a painting. The rest is arbitrary. Chosen with discernment, but chosen, and choice involves elimination. Louise Bourgeois arbitrarychoicesessence My mother was a restorer, she repaired broken things. I don't do that. I destroy things. I cannot go the straight line. I must destroy, rebuild, destroy again. My rhythm is not the same. My mother moved in a straight line: I go from one extreme to the other. Louise Bourgeois linesbrokenmother Everywhere in the modern world there is neglect, the need to be recognized, which is not satisfied. Art is a way of recognizing oneself, which is why it will always be modern. Louise Bourgeois worldartneeds At the dinner table when I was very little, I would hear people bickering... To escape the bickering, I started modelling the soft bread with my fingers. With the dough of the French bread %u2013 sometimes it was still warm %u2013 I would make little figures. And I would line them up on the table and this was really my first sculpture. Louise Bourgeois sculpturelinespeople ... geometry became a symbol for human relations, except that it was better, because in geometry things never go bad. If certain things occur, if certain lines meet, an angle is born. You cannot fail. It's not going to fail; it is eternal. I found in rules of mathematics a peace and a trust that I could not place in human beings. This sublimation was total and remained total. Thus, I'm able to avoid or manipulate or process pain. Louise Bourgeois linesablepain My childhood has never lost its magic, it has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama. Louise Bourgeois childhoodmagicdrama I do not need the musing of the philosophers to tell me what I am doing. It would be more interesting to let me know why I am doing it. Louise Bourgeois would-beinterestingneeds A work of art doesn't have to be explained. Louise Bourgeois works-of-artart Don't get the green disease of envy. Don't be fooled by success and money. Don't let anything come between you and your work. Louise Bourgeois envygreendisease
