Happens Quote by Glenn Ligon

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

Race is not something inherent to one's being: One does feel more or less colored, depending on the situation.

— Glenn Ligon

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

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

It's a great idea: to feel the rhythm of something by seeing how it flows on a page.

— Glenn Ligon

So much of my work has been about disappearing.

— Glenn Ligon

I'm interested in when language fails, when it is opaque.

— Glenn Ligon

In writing, something is always left out: it can't be articulated in the space of an essay.

— Glenn Ligon

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

Much of my work is engaged with 'America' - the idea of America.

— Glenn Ligon

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

I like having a studio to go to. It's like having a job.

— Glenn Ligon