Jazz musicians like John Coltrane needed these very clear titles for their abstract music, and your decision to bring voices into your music as a way to tap into content. It's related to the way my text-based work still functions… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I love Thelonious Monk's song "Just a Gigolo." It's probably a minor song for him, but whenever I hear a recording of him playing it, I'm mesmerized, because Monk clearly loved pop music. He took it very seriously and made… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Throughout African-American literature, the writer has, in a sense, been burdened by the necessity of pleading the case for the whole race. For example,… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Race is not something inherent to one's being: One does feel more or less colored, depending on the situation. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
I think there's an interest right now in the performance aspect of artworks, instead of just hanging things on walls. We're in a moment… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
A key text for me is James Baldwin's essays. And, in particular, his essay Stranger in the Village. It's a text that I've used… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
It's a great idea: to feel the rhythm of something by seeing how it flows on a page. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
In writing, something is always left out: it can't be articulated in the space of an essay. — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Willem de Kooning paintings are a language to be learned. When they were first shown, they were ridiculed as being just drips and splatters… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
My mother really didn't come from artists. Her famous quote to me was, "The only artists I've ever heard of are dead." The pottery… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
