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Voice: Miss O'Keffe, this portrait is going to be one of words and I'm mindful of what you think about words, which is that words are not as exact a meaning as color. Tell me about that.

Miss O'Keffe: Well, I think usually when you've said it you think it probably isn't true and what other people say about you are certain is not true.

Q: You say, "I'm often amazed at the spoken and written words telling me what I've painted." "No one else can tell how my paintings happen."

A: That's true, don't you think.

Q: Yes, I think it's true of criticism in general. Do you have a complaint about art critics?

A: Do I complain?

Q: Have they been fair?

A: Of course I complained. That why I happened to write this thing.

Q: How old are you now, Miss O'Keffe?

A: How old am I? Old enough to know better than to be doing this. (Laughter)

Q: Is this your first book?

A: I'm 83. 88

Q: I'm looking at a reproduction of one of your oil canvases done in 1924. It's called, "Dark Abstraction." And then you say, "It is surprising to me to see how many people separate the objective from the abstract. Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense." What do you mean by that?

A: I said further than that. That if you made a painting just of a tree, to be a tree, it has to be right, in the abstract sense, to be of interest.,really, as a picture.

Q: You are characterized as the greatest living...

A: Of course, what I've just said isn't true, (laughter) because you may want a picture of that tree just botanically rather than as an artist.

Q: You are always reaching out for something new, aren't you?

A: Certainly. You don't want to repeat yourself, do you? If you don't have to.