I feel sometimes an American artist must feel, like a baseball player or something - a member of a team writing American history.

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.

I have to change to stay the same.

The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.

I don't paint to live, I live to paint.

What you do when you paint, you take a brush full of paint, get paint on the picture, and you have faith.

The drawings that interest me most are made with closed eyes. With eyes closed, I feel my hand slide down on the paper. I have an image in mind, but the results always surprise me.

Whatever an artist's personal feelings are, as soon as an artist fills a certain area on the canvas or circumscribes it, he becomes historical. He acts from or upon other artists.

It's really absurd to make... a human image, with paint, today, when you think about it... But then all of a sudden, it was even more absurd not to do it.

I might work on a painting for a month, but it has too look like I painted it in a minute.

Spiritually I am wherever my spirit allows me to be, and that is not necessarily in the future... Art never seems to make me peaceful or pure.

I allow my inner joy wellspring to be unbounded and free, to power me up, and to keep me radiantly healthy!

That is the true challenge--to work within a narrow confine. To accept what you cannot have

Mothers possess a power beyond that of a king on his throne.

I have learned that not diamonds but divorce lawyers are a girl's best friend.

If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages.

Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.

I'm a naughty sweetheart.

It is the cringer to his equal that is chiefly seen bold to his God.

We have sought for firm ground and found none. The deeper we penetrate, the more restless becomes the universe; all is rushing about and vibrating in a wild dance.

It's a precious thing to be communicating to children, helping them discover the gift of language and thought.