De Kooning Quotables

I've just finished reading "Elaine & Bill: Portrait of a Marriage," by Lee Hall which was decent. Would say if you want a better read to do the "De Kooning: An American Master" by Swan and Stevens (which is masterful in itself). But, this one was better for Elaine, and had some good stuff.

Here are some quotes, all from the Lee Hall, with page number in parenthesis:

(pic above is from fourfiveone.com)

“I met Mark Rothko in Washington Square Park, in the Village. I remember it was late at night and there was this kind of husky man sitting on the left side of a bench and me on the right with no one else in the park. I didn’t want to speak first in case I was mistaken for a queer or something. ‘Nice evening,’ Rothko finally said. we discovered we were both painters. A couple of days later he came to visit me in my studio and that was the beginning of our friendship.”
-Willem de Kooning (p. 13)

Bill’s habit of drinking coffee all day, along with his anxiety about his painting, often kept him awake at night. Restless and depressed, he took long walks along the dark lonely streets of Manhattan. A friend returning from a party just before dawn one morning remembers: “I was walking along the street and saw a figure coming near me. And when the street light fell on his hair, I knew it was Bill. He had that luminous blond hair that caught light. So,” he continued, “I walked toward him and greeted him. He nodded his head and I fell in alongside Bill and we walked and walked. After a but, down near the docks, we sat for awhile on some empty wooden boxes. Bill said, ‘You know, Elaine is very beautiful.’ And I agreed. Then he said, ‘Elaine is very beautiful to a lot of other guys, too’ Well, what could I say? He was right. But I knew that he was really trying to say that Elaine was breaking his heart, that she was out with some other guy. But that’s all he said.” (p. 36)

"The first man who began to speak, whoever he was, must have intended it. For surely it is talking that has put “Art” into painting. Nothing is positive about art except that it is a word. Right from there to here all art became literary." - Willem de Kooning (p.98)

"Style is a fraud… It is impossible to find out how a style began I think it is the most bourgeois idea to think that one can make a style beforehand. To desire to make a style is an apology for one’s own anxiety.” - Willem de Kooning (p. 110)

“The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves. When a man ploughs his field at the right time, it means just that.” -Willem de Kooning (p. 151)

At the dinner party, Elaine Benson found herself seated next to Bill de Kooning, who seemed shy or preoccupied. She initiated conversation, saying, “We’re just back from Las Vegas.” Bill said, “That’s nice. I’ve always wanted to go to Las Vegas.”
“Well,” Elaine asked, “why don’t you go?”
“You see,” he answered slowly and solemnly. “I’m a painter. And the trouble is, if you’re a painter, you get up in the morning and you work for awhile. Then you have something to eat. And then you go back to work. You stop and you worry about what you are doing. And you work some more. Then you stop and have something to eat. Then you’re tired, so you watch some TV. Then you go to bed, but you worry about what you did in your work that day. So you get up and you work some more. Then you go back to bed, and you worry.”
…
“So,” said Bill, “on what day would I go to Las Vegas?” (p. 218-9)