Trying to recall a Picasso quote

January 23, 2023 11:11 AM

It goes something like this: Being around other people makes me tired, but working energizes me.

Talk about a horrible paraphrase, sorry, but that's the best I can do.

Thank you!

posted by zenpop to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

This has similar elements but a very different meaning:

"Pablo Picasso was notorious for sucking the energy out of the people he met. His granddaughter Marina claimed that he squeezed people like one of his tubes of oil paints. You’s have a great time hanging out all day with Picasso, and then you’s go home nervous and exhausted, and Picasso would go back to his studio and paint all night, using the energy he’d sucked out of you."

Also, not a Picasso quote, it was said by Austin Kleon.
posted by 10ch at 11:46 AM on January 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks, 10ch, that is a fascinating insight, although I have quibbles with it. It's subjective, and doubly so as it's coming from a family member.

But I can also see how it could be true. Gigantic egos can be exhausting to accommodate.

Now, if I can just find that quote I'm recalling. I need to keep better notes while composing.
posted by zenpop at 12:25 PM on January 23, 2023

There's a passage in Françoise Gilot's Life with Picasso where she quotes him as saying, about his great and growing fame, something like 'yes, people like me — but they like me like they like chicken!'

With a clear implication that he means they want to tear him apart and consume him.
posted by jamjam at 1:49 PM on January 23, 2023