I have found in my still-life work that I seem to be able to tell what objects are important to me by what tends to stay in the painting as it develops.

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.

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

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.

Achievers are biased towards action despite any fear, and this courage sets them apart from others.

The greatest trick Christianity ever pulled was convincing the world that Satan exists.

We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.

Genius is personal decided by fate but it expresses itself by means of system. There is no work of art without system.

I never listen to music when I write.

Remember this! No amount of Bacchic reveling can corrupt an honest woman.

Never just run through a study because you happen to be familiar with it, but use it to see what you can get from it on this new day which has been granted you.

When well-being comes from engaging our strengths and virtues, our lives are imbued with authenticity.

The director is a bit analogous to the conductor of a symphony orchestra. It's a collaborative adventure.

I found that it was all right to have Martians saying things Democrats and Republicans could never say.