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I had my own eyes, but I wasn't always looking in the right direction. I was certainly in need of a helping hand at times. Now I feel like Manet who said, "Yes, I am influenced by everybody. But every time I put my hands in my pockets I find someone else's fingers there."

— Willem de Kooning

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More quotes by Willem de Kooning

The texture of experience is prior to everything else.

I feel sometimes an American artist must feel, like a baseball player or something - a member of a team writing American history..

Willem de Kooning (1969)

For really, when you think of all the life and death problems in the art of the Renaissance, who cares if a Chevalier is laughing or that a young girl has a red blouse on.

The Renaissance and Order (1950)

Jackson has broken the ice for us.

It is disastrous to name ourselves.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Willem de Kooning (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.