I don't get into 'becauses.' When you come into a studio you see a number of works. My habit is to go to the one I like most. If you start to say, 'because,' you get into art jargon.

Where the Old Masters created an illusion of space into which one could imagine walking, the illusion created by a Modernist is one into which one can look, can travel through, only with the eye.

Complete honesty has nothing to do with 'purity' or naivety. The full truth is unattainable to naivety, and the completely honest artist is not pure in heart.

All profoundly original art looks ugly at first.

If you want to change your art, change your habits.

Realistic, naturalistic art had dissembled the medium, using art to conceal art; Modernism used art to call attention to art.

Art is a matter strictly of experience, not of principles and what counts first and last in art is quality, all other things are secondary.

You like it, that's all, whether it's a landscape or abstract. You like it. It hits you. You don't have to read it. The work of art-sculpture or painting-forces your eye.

The reality of art is disclosed only in experience, not in reflection upon experience.

When you don't like something the words come more readily.

With an 'advanced' artist, it's not now possible to make a portrait.

Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.

Who you are is shaping your so-called reality. When you change — the world changes with you.

I am fit to capture a unicorn, and I should not be so questioned.

Our future and our fate lie in our wills more than in our hands, for our hands are but the instruments of our wills.

There's a difference between a mistake or even a crime that's been committed by an individual, and between a policy of crime that's been implemented or adopted by a government.

I think that ultimately what drives my decisions is if I think the opportunity is going to challenge me in a way that makes me better as an actor.

I made more lousy pictures than any actor in history.

There is only one emotion that I know of which has absolutely no place in spectator sport and death to it - laughter.

Start writing sooner. Don't wait for permission. Don't hesitate.

The usefulest truths are the plainest.