I love the flexibility of saying, "Today we're making 50-foot paintings, and we're going to have to join hands and figure out how that's going to work." But in the end, it's a possibility.

I think there's something important in going against the grain, and perhaps finding value in things that aren't necessarily institutionally recognized.

This is something that, as artists, we constantly deal with-throwing away the past, slaying the father, and creating the new. This desire to throw away the old rules.

The backgrounds by design are a very key part of the conversation, because I want a kind of fight or pressure to exist between the figure and the background.

All art is self-portraiture.

Painting is situational. And my particular situation exists within gender, race, class, sexuality, nation.

I believe that artists should be part of the culture. I think that my work clearly bears that out.

The art world has become so insular. The rules have become so autodidactic that, in a sense, they lose track of what people have any interest in thinking about, talking about or even looking at.

We have a lot of sort of received historical ways of viewing portraiture. And I suppose in some way I'm sort of questioning that by toying with the rules of the game.

We're wired to be empathetic and to care about the needs of others, but also to be curious about others. And I think that's just sort of in our DNA. And so portraiture is a very human act.

I guess art is in the eye of the beholder.

God save me ere I have any babies. They are grabby, clingy creatures who steal your figure and always want a ribbon or a wooden sword. And who sometimes make you die bearing them.

Vegetarianism is a way of living consciously on the planet.

Talk in terms of the other person's interests.

It's a very important issue to me, trying to wake people up to the fact that we'd better take better care of our planet.

Friendships, like marriages, are dependent on avoiding the unforgivable.

Every country has their problems.

My first appearance, the first time I try anything, invariably is not very successful. I tend to grow slowly, but solidly.

My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying.

Suspense combines curiosity with fear and pulls them up a rising slope.

The unlived life isn't worth examining.