All paintings start out of a mood, out of a relationship with things or people, out of a complete visual impression

I don't go into the studio with the idea of 'saying' something. What I do is face the blank canvas and put a few arbitrary marks on it that start me on some sort of dialogue.

Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.

Mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position.

In a successful painting everything is integral - all the parts belong to the whole. If you remove an aspect or element you are removing its wholeness.

One wants to see the artifice of the thing as well as the subject.

If you get an image try to destroy it.

I would like the colors, their shapes and positions to be arrived at in response to and dictated by the condition of the total space at the time they are considered.

My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful, the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles.

I came to mistrust my desire to explode the picture and supercharge it in some way… what is more important is a feeling of strength in reserve – tension beneath calm.

Don't be a Pollyanna!

Man is by nature a curious animal. You can hide the truth from him temporarily, but not for ever.

Watch your back, little wolf, they say. Enemies arise from unexpected places.

Most writers steal a good thing when they can, and when 'Tis safely got 'Tis worth the winning. The worst of 't is we now and then detect em, they ever dream that we suspect em.

What, then, is this blue sky, which certainly does exist, and which veils from us the stars during the day?

After following the crowd for a while, I'd then go 180 degrees in the exact opposite direction. It always worked for me.

Children are rarely in the position to lend one a truly interesting sum of money. There are, however, exceptions, and such children are an excellent addition to any party.

I just want to thank God for everything he has done in my life.

Ezra Klein gets under my skin. He seems to spout the party line.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow, Or by the lazy Scheld or wandering Po.