'Clothespin' was the first city monument on a large scale that could compete with the architecture around it.

Everything I do is completely original-I made it up when I was a kid.

I am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself.

I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all.

My rule was not to paint things as they were. I wasn't copying; I was remaking them as my own.

The main reason for the colossal objects is the obvious one, to expand and intensify the presence of the vessel - the object.

Art is a technique of communication. The image is the most complete technique of all communication.

For a thorough use of ice cream cones, buy two; eat one and drop the other.

I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.

If I didn't think what I was doing had something to do with enlarging the boundaries of art, I wouldn't go on doing it.

I am for the art of underwear and the art of taxicabs. I am for the art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete.

the lessons are best when the pain is worse

So I'm more at home with my backpack, sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus or on an airplane, than I am necessarily on a bed. It's weird being here. It feels like I'm standing next to my real life.

The difficult child is the child who is unhappy. He is at war with himself; and in consequence, he is at war with the world.

Forgiving is not easy. It is not cheap.

Music is worth doing just because. It doesn’t have to be justified by some political point of view, and it’s kind of insulting to the music to make it a tool for something else.

The longer our graduation lines are today, the shorter our unemployment lines will be tomorrow.

I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.

If it works, it's obsolete.