I knew I wanted to be some kind of artist from about 12. I met a neighbour who drew cartoons, and I had an idea I wanted to be a cartoonist - or something that involved Indian ink, at any rate.

Good art should elicit a response of 'Huh? Wow!' as opposed to ‘Wow! Huh?'

I'm interested in glorifying something that we in the world would say doesn't deserve being glorified. Something that's forgotten, focused on as though it were some sort of sacred object.

When I first did the book on gasoline stations, people would look at it and say, Are you kidding or what? Why are you doing this? In a sense, that's what I was after: I was after the head-scratching.

I just use [the camera]. I just pick it up like an axe when I've got to chop down a tree. I pick up a camera and go out and shoot the pictures I have to shoot.

Traveling is irritating to me, but not driving. Going to the airport makes me nervous, but when I set out to just take a leisurely drive, it's blue skies and puffy clouds and time.

People refuse to believe that I've never been to Starbucks or Disneyland.

All my artistic response comes from American things, and I guess I've always had a weakness for heroic imagery.

My pictures are not that interesting, nor the subject matter. They are simply a collection of facts; my book is more like a collection of Ready-mades.

I wasn't captivated by the romance of Paris or London. I love visiting, but I'd rather be in L.A.

Perhaps there would be more anxiety in my work if I lived in New York.

I wish to be a product not a consumer.

Ignorance is a flaw and pride is another blemish caused by ignorance.

A new book is like a friend that I have yet to meet

It is not a matter of indifference whether we like oysters or clams, snails or shrimp, if only we know how to unravel the existential significance of these foods.

A gift that cannot be given away ceases to be a gift. The spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation.

You've got to have something to retire to. Something you always wanted to do but your job prevented it.

We know that madness belongs to love,--what power to paint a vile object in hues of heaven.

The [Bernie] Sanders campaign said you might be suppressing the vote by doing this 'cause people in those states might decide to stay home, that their vote doesn't count.

Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy.

I know people are fickle.