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Sam Taylor-Wood Quotes

Powerful Sam Taylor-Wood for Daily Growth

I've turned into one of those people who go jogging in parks that I used to hate.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Go, Used, Turned, Jogging

I struggle if I have chaos around me, but at the same time, if I don't have it, I'm uncomfortable. It's a strange thing: If I don't have chaos, I create it.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Chaos, Same Time, Strange Thing

I love life. I think it's fantastic. Sometimes it deals hard things, and when it deals great things, you have to seize them.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Love, Think, Hard Things, Fantastic

Anonymity would be a fantastic umbrella. I don't like intrusion.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Umbrella, Intrusion, Would, Fantastic

Seeing a new play in a first-time production is so exciting - when it's good, you want to shout from the rooftops.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Play, New, First-Time, Rooftops

Never trust a hippie. That's definitely my motto.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Trust, Never, Definitely, Hippie

I'm the lightest sleeper. I can hear a pin drop. It's been worse since I was ill. I think your inner ear is always half open, listening out for the faintest danger sign.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Drop, Been, I Think, Pin

I often joke that I straddle psychosis and neurosis, and that being an artist keeps me in the middle, so I can work between the two.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Work, Artist, Middle, Neurosis

I think you only see experiences as defining moments with distance.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Think, See, I Think, Defining

A lot of children remember seeing cartoons, 'Pinocchio' or 'Bambi' or something that breaks their heart. I remember seeing 'The Blue Angel' and it breaking my heart. It was the first time I realised there was an adult world - that adults could damage each other or destroy each other emotionally.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

I Remember, Other, Damage, Bambi

My work is made on lines similar to those of a film production. A lot of my work is kind of bureaucratic, endlessly phoning up people, trying to find the cameraman and the lighting man, because I am a total technology-phobe, quite helpless with equipment.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Production, Endlessly, Lot, Helpless

One of the few times I saw my mother cry was when Lennon died, and the other time was when Elvis died.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Cry, Other, Saw, Lennon

I'm interested in taking raw human emotions and then isolating them without any narrative structure. In order to achieve this, I try to break out of the narrative conventions that you'd see in a typical feature film.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Achieve, Out, Without, Conventions

I love karaoke. I love maudlin country ballads. In another life, I'd be Loretta Lynn.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Love, Country, Karaoke, Maudlin

I had two primary cancers, which was pretty unusual. And when I got the second one, people told me such terrible bad-news stories, they instigated fears that weren't there in the first place. I do remember with such gratitude one doctor saying to me, 'Two primaries? That's nothing. I've seen a patient with six.'

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Two, Got, Had, Primary

I went to Goldsmith College of Art in London in the '80s and there I made sculptures, but the objects had nothing to do with how I was thinking. I was making beautifully sanded wooden boxes!

- Sam Taylor-Wood

College, Boxes, Sculptures, Wooden

Sometimes, I get afraid it has defined me, that sense of grief, loss and illness. But actually, it is about allowing myself to take hold and say: 'This is part of who I am, but not only who I am.'

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Myself, Sometimes, Part, Defined

I think people are frightened of women making big decisions.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Think, Big, Making, Frightened

I wanted to become an artist because it meant endless possibilities. Art was a way of reinventing myself.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Art, Possibilities, Meant, Reinventing

Seriously, I wanted to be an artist because I saw that it meant endless possibilities. I came from a badly managed family background, so art was a way of reinventing myself.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Possibilities, Meant, Badly, Reinventing

When you're no longer ill, and everyone's gotten over the fact that you've had cancer, that core of steel doesn't go away, and then I had to find other channels for it.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Steel, Other, Over, Channels

I'm motivated every second by my work; it doesn't switch off. The pictures I make come from every blink of my lashes.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Work, Motivated, Lashes, Every Second

I think that, to be an artist, you have to have a big enough ego to believe that people out in the world want to see what you think is a good idea. And if you don't have that sense of ego, then the minute that idea goes into the world, self-doubt kicks in.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Artist, Big, I Think, Kicks

I have a massive phobia for schedules and calendars. I need people to tell me where I need to be. I can't bear to see it in black and white. I think it's a fear of being pinned down.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Think, I Think, Pinned, Calendars

Sorry, there's nothing like a screaming baby to make a mother twitch.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Mother, Sorry, Twitch, Screaming

I like Alexander McQueen's work a lot: he's always pushing boundaries, and he's rough around the edges.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Always, Like, Rough, McQueen

After I left college, I went to work at the Royal Opera House in London, which became a real catalyst for me because it made me realize that I was interested in cinema and in the way life is thrust at you. So I started making films.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

College, Opera, Became, Thrust

Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of our age; he's like Olivier. He's one of those people who can take you into a place where no one else can take you.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

People, Like, Our, Daniel

When I had cancer - of the colon first, followed by breast cancer and a mastectomy - my motto used to be 'Drips by day, Prada by night.' I felt that I had to grasp it in the same way as you'd take on any challenge.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Used, Grasp, Had, Mastectomy

I went out of my way to try not to be an artist, because I thought I would end up leading a miserable, obscure life. I tried to escape it for as long as I could, until I had to admit at 25 that that was my path.

- Sam Taylor-Wood

Thought, Artist, Leading, Escape

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