"I remember thinking a great deal about classical art when I made those drawings. I wanted them to have a relationship to the classical carved marbles, which to me, are frozen moments from 3000 years ago, yet still powerfully t.mes less. [...] I was interested in that moment of explosiveness and power that comes from the impact of the exertion of violence. That was the feeling I wanted to imbue in the drawings."
- Robert Longo on his series “Men in the Cities”, in Caroline Smulders, “An Hour with Robert Longo”, Robert Longo, p. 30

Robert Longo in his Manhattan Studio. Photographed by ©Erica Gannett.