49 Quotes by Kara Walker

I never learned how to be adequately black. I never learned how to be black at all.

I have no interest in making a work that doesn't elicit a feeling.

I really love to make sweeping historical gestures that are like little illustrations of novels.

I guess there was a little bit of a slight rebellion, maybe a little bit of a renegade desire that made me realize at some point in my adolescence that I really liked pictures that told stories of things - genre paintings, historical paintings - the sort of derivatives we get in contemporary society.

I'm a sponge for historical images of black people and black history on film.

To be a truly conscientious artist, you have to look at what's not working and challenge it. You riff on things.

I'm fascinated with the stories that we tell. Real histories become fantasies and fairy tales, morality tales and fables. There's something interesting and funny and perverse about the way fairytale sometimes passes for history, for truth.

Challenging and highlighting abusive power dynamics in our culture is my goal; replicating them is not.

I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't really know what it was I wanted to say.