Hilton Als quotes

Inspiration takes many forms, but it's rarely pure. (Hilton Als)
People have a copyright on their own life. View quote
Hilton Als
I think writing is an act of remembrance, I think that Instagram is an act of remembrance, and I think curating a show is an act of memory, too. View quote
Hilton Als
I think I'm just generally more interested in figuration than abstraction. I think that painting abstraction often feels like painting colors to me, whereas portraits always feel like something connected. I like the exchange, the collaborative aspect of sitter and subject for sure. View quote
Hilton Als
It's very hard to find artists in the history of western art who don't make portraiture ideological in some way. View quote
Hilton Als
Nothing is more flattering for a writer than when someone knows your work. View quote
Hilton Als
I think it means where the artist doesn't necessarily have a full understanding of something, but they have deep empathy. They have some kind of amazing empathy with the characters in the world. I just think it means being openhearted and generous. I think that to be a conscious person is to sort through stuff in order to understand not just yourself but how you feel in the world. View quote
Hilton Als
I think I was just a very skinless person...And I had this terrible need to confess; and I still do it...It's a bid to be loved, in some way. View quote
Hilton Als
The damage suffered by people I know and love is almost always based on the trauma of the only elder they had treating them badly or being interested only in their silence. And what you're left with, by the grace of God and some miracle, is this inner self. Our experiences are painful and sometimes annihilating, and if we have the strength to crawl out of and excavate that wreckage, we have to ask ourselves how to describe the truth of it. View quote
Hilton Als
In order to write anything profile-driven, I would become the person; and then I would analyse the person from within. Earlier, I would analyse them from without. But if I was going to write about him now, I would do it internally, so then it would be fiction. View quote
Hilton Als