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I Want[ed] To Make A Show Of Really Big Pictures, Because You See Male Artists Doing It All The Time. It Just Seemed Like Such A Big Egotistical Thing. I Thought, 'i Don't Know That Many Women That Really Do That.... Damn It, I'm Gonna Do That-make This Really Big Picture.'

-Cindy Sherman

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I Want[ed] To Make

Cindy Sherman

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I Want[ed] To Make A Show Of Really Big Pictures, Because You See Male Artists Doing It All The Time. It Just Seemed Like Such A Big Egotistical Thing. I Thought, 'i Don't Know That Many Women That Really Do That.... Damn It, I'm Gonna Do That-make This Really Big Picture.'

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I Am Fine, Though It Is Hard To Think Of What Kind Of Work To Make At This Point, Other Than Decorative, Escapist Or Abstract. I Suppose I'll Explore One Or All Of These Things.

Every Time You Have To Come Up With A New Body Of Work For A New Show, You're Aware That People Are Just Ready To Rip You Apart, They're Just Waiting For You To Fall Or Make The Slightest Trip Up.

The Way I See It, As Soon As I Make A Piece I’ve Lost Control Of It.

I Don't Think I Can See The World Through Other People's Eyes, But I Can Capture An Attitude Or A Look That Makes Others Think I Can. I Have An Appreciation For Why People Choose To Look The Way They Do. But I Can't Know What They Experience.

I Can't Work Without It [music]. And It Has To Be The Right Kind, Because If It's Not Then I Get Into A Bad Mood. I Work With A Remote So That I Can Change Cds Instantly If I Need To.

I Was Meticulously Copying Other Art And Then I Realized I Could Just Use A Camera And Put My Time Into An Idea Instead.

My Dad Was Such A Bigot. He Was A Horrible, Self-centred Person. He Was Really Racist And He'd Talk About The Jews And Blacks And Catholics Even.

I Didn't Have Any Interest In Traditional Art.

Inconsiderate, Rude Behavior Drives Me Nuts. And I Guess The Inconsiderate Rudeness Of Social Ineptitude Definitely Fuels My Work.

I Feel I'm Anonymous In My Work. When I Look At The Pictures, I Never See Myself; They Aren't Self-portraits. Sometimes I Disappear.

My Ideas Are Not Developed Before I Actually Do The Pieces.

I Wanted To Create Something That People Could Relate To Without Having Read A Book About It Beforehand.

I’m Trying To Make Other People Recognize Something Of Themselves Rather Than Me.

I Was Supporting Myself, But Nothing Like The Guy Painters, As I Refer To Them. I Always Resented That Actually.. We Were All Getting The Same Amount Of Press, But They Were Going Gangbusters With Sales.

I Want[ed] To Make A Show Of Really Big Pictures, Because You See Male Artists Doing It All The Time. It Just Seemed Like Such A Big Egotistical Thing. I Thought, 'i Don't Know That Many Women That Really Do That.... Damn It, I'm Gonna Do That-make This Really Big Picture.'

I Don't Analyze What I'm Doing. I've Read Convincing Interpretations Of My Work, And Sometimes I've Noticed Something That I Wasn't Aware Of, But I Think, At This Point, People Read Into My Work Out Of Habit. Or I'm Just Very, Very Smart.

I Didn't Think Of What I Was Doing As Political. To Me It Was A Way To Make The Best Out Of What I Liked To Do Privately, Which Was To Dress Up.

Everyone Thinks These Are Self-portraits But They Aren't Meant To Be. I Just Use Myself As A Model Because I Know I Can Push Myself To Extremes, Make Each Shot As Ugly Or Goofy Or Silly As Possible.

[my Work Is] Maybe About Me Maybe Not Wanting To Be Me And Wanting To Be All These Other Characters. Or At Least Try Them On.

The Work Is What It Is And Hopefully It's Seen As Feminist Work, Or Feminist-advised Work, But I'm Not Going To Go Around Espousing Theoretical Bullshit About Feminist Stuff.

Being Able To Make A Living Doing Something One Truly Loves To Do - Is My Definition Of Success.

I Think I Always Resented The Fact That People Thought I Was Trying To Entertain Them With My Multifaceted, Chameleonlike Character Changes. Although I Liked Doing That, I Wasn't Out To Fool People And Say 'guess Which One Is Me.'

Early In My Career, A Critic Said That I Needed To "explain" The Irony In My Work, Suggesting That I Needed To Add Text Next To The Images To Help People Understand What I Was Trying To Say. At First I Was Dismayed That I Wasn't Making Work With A Clear Enough Message. That's When I Realized That That Was The Exact Opposite Of What I Wanted To Do - That I Wasn't Responsible For A Misinterpretation Of My Work, That There Should Be Some Ambiguity To It. They Either Got It, Or They Didn't.

One Reason I Was Interested In Photography Was To Get Away From The Preciousness Of The Art Object.

My Message For People To Not Take Anything For Granted, To Respect What They Might Not Understand.

When I Do Work, I Get So Much Done In Such A Concentrated Time That Once I’m Through A Series, I’m So Drained I Don’t Want To Get Near The Camera.

Dreamers Are Those Who Have Achieved In Love And Life, Because It Is A Dream That Got Them There.

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Nowadays, With Digital Printing, It's So Easy To Make Everything Perfect, Which Is Not Always A Good Idea. Sometimes The Mistakes Are Really What Make A Piece.

People Are Always Trying To Find The Next Groovy Thing, And It Hasn't Gone Back To Painting... I'd Like It To Go Back To Painting. I'm Sick Of All This Photography And Video. There's So Much Of It, It's Almost Annoying.

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I Can Be Fearlessly Strong At Times To Protect An Inner Frailty.

I’m Really Just Using The Mirror To Summon Something I Don’t Even Know Until I See It.

We're All Products Of What We Want To Project To The World. Even People Who Don't Spend Any Time, Or Think They Don't, On Preparing Themselves For The World Out There - I Think That Ultimately They Have For Their Whole Lives Groomed Themselves To Be A Certain Way, To Present A Face To The World.

So Many Things Suddenly Made Sense For The Clowns, For The Whole Idea. I’d Been Going Through A Struggle, Particularly After 9/11; I Couldn’t Figure Out What I Wanted To Say. I Still Wanted The Work To Be The Same Kind Of Mixture – Intense, With A Nasty Side Or An Ugly Side, But Also With A Real Pathos About The Characters – And Clowns Have An Underlying Sense Of Sadness While They’re Trying To Cheer People Up. Clowns Are Sad, But They’re Also Psychotically, Hysterically Happy.

If I Knew What The Picture Was Going To Be Like I Wouldn’t Make It. It Was Almost Like It Was Made Already – The Challenge Is More About Trying To Make What You Can’t Think Of.

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The Still Must Tease With The Promise Of A Story The Viewer Of It Itches To Be Told.

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I Didn't Want To Make 'high' Art, I Had No Interest In Using Paint, I Wanted To Find Something That Anyone Could Relate To Without Knowing About Contemporary Art. I Wasn't Thinking In Terms Of Precious Prints Or Archival Quality; I Didn't Want The Work To Seem Like A Commodity.

People Think Because It's Photography It's Not Worth As Much, And Because It's A Woman Artist, You're Still Not Getting As Much - There's Still Definitely That Happening. I'm Still Really Competitive When It Comes To, I Guess, The Male Painters And Male Artists. I Still Think That's Really Unfair.

I Think People Are More Apt To Believe Photographs, Especially If It’s Something Fantastic. They’re Willing To Be More Gullible. Sometimes They Want Fantasy. Even If They Know It’s Fake They Can Believe Anything. People Are Accustomed To Being Told What To Believe In.

The Models Have Always Been The Least Interesting Thing About Fashion.

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