Tracey Emin Quotes

Art is like a lover whom you run away from but who comes back and picks you up.

There should be something revelatory about art. It should be totally creative and open doors for new thoughts and experiences.

It's my memory, and what happened between that moment 10 or 15 years ago and now, there's a lot of gray area

Most people don't do something seminal. I've done it twice: with my tent and my bed. Picasso did it with Cubism.

When it comes to words I have a uniqueness that I find almost impossible in art – and it's my words that actually make my art quite unique.

What's really good about the word 'art' is that 'art' is a word like 'love,' or 'god,' or whatever. It transcends so many things.

What is truth? Truth doesn't really exist. Who is going to judge whether my experience of an incident is more valid than yours? No one can be trusted to be the judge of that.

The words went round and round and round in my mind and my body, until I knew they were no longer my words but something that had been carved into my heart. And now my soul was crying.

There is nothing difficult about my work, and people get to hear it from me.

I feel physically ill if I don't make work, I don't create. I don't feel very good. I don't feel right, I feel wrong.

I'm not opposed to commerce, even though I'm an artist.

Being an artist and having to be responsible for the art that you make is really quite challenging, and as you get older it becomes more and more difficult.

All the mistakes I've ever made in my life have been when I've been drunk. I haven't made hardly any mistakes sober, ever, ever.

People don't remember. Revenge is sweet.

My influences were from Europe from between 1900 and 1945. My favorite artists were Egon Schiele or Edvard Munch. I wasn't interested in contemporary art at all.

I've been slagged off completely by the art world and I don't know whether fancy being slagged off by the literary world as well. It's just too much.

The idea that I'm going to have to sit down to write some fiction where I'm going to have to think of a plot would really scare me, because it would come out a mess.

I thought it would be my one and only exhibition so I decided to call it My Major Retrospective.

I'm not trying to find another thing that's wrong with me, but I'm such a nice person, and I have a couple of drinks and I'm really good fun and then I'm really not fun

I found that life has to be edited to continue.

There's so much stuff said about me that's not true, so now if something is hurtful and wrong, I send an e-mail or letter immediately, saying, This is not true.

There is no comparison between him and me; he developed a whole new way of making art and he's clearly in a league of his own. It would be like making comparisons with Warhol.

My mum has never wanted me to have children. She thinks I would be destroying my life, even now.

Maybe I don't believe things myself, as well. Truth is such a transient thing...

I don't ask for an apology because it's only tomorrow's fish-and-chip paper.

I had to come to terms with my failure as an artist... I had to find a way for myself.

People try constantly to use me and I hate it.

It wasn't so much destroying my dancing, it was destroying me

One thing that success has taught me is censorship.

I really love animals. My cat is my little soul mate. He's not just a cat, he's my friend.

If I were really, truly in love with someone who was truly in love with me, then I would get married, but that would be the only reason I'd get married.

I've got over so much. Mum wouldn't want anything to come into my life that would make me fragile again

For me, being an artist with a high profile is a good thing for art.

If I didn't want to work for a couple of years I wouldn't have to - it's a great feeling, to know I'm doing it because I want to do it.

It pleases me that people can be interactive

I've never been married because, first of all, I don't think I've ever seriously been asked by anyone who I wanted to marry. [...] And also I'm monogamous.

The soul will always do what it needs to do.

I'm totally monogamous when I'm in a relationship, and when I'm not in a relationship, I don't sleep around. So when I'm not with someone, I'm really on my own.

When I am ill or upset he jumps up on to the bed to curl up close beside me. But if I am in bed with a hangover he will have nothing to do with me.

I'm a terrible cook, but if I could cook, I would see that in art as well, it's how much creative energy you put into something.

Sometimes i feel lonely, but it's ok

The wheel that squeaks gets the oil.

I know people went to laugh at my bed and to jeer at it. Still, at least they actually went to see it.

I am fiercely independent and I probably wouldn't be if it wasn't for the way in which I was brought up

The words went round and round and round in my mind and my body, until I knew they were no longer my words but something that had been carved into my heart.And now my soul was crying.