It sounds formulaic now, but at the time, I was interested in the difference between the thing and the representation of the idea of the thing - the space between the two.

I feel that the only thing that really matters in art and life is to go against the tidal wave of literalism and literal-mindedness-to insist on and live the life of the imagination.

The pictures present an improvised view of life as normal. Life is shown as we think we see it but in fact never do. The pictures imitate life to find a way out.

Spend a day talking only in rhyme.

For me, art history is like a feather bed - you fall into it and it catches you.

The only thing worth doing is what's never been done before.

Ever since I started painting, I have tried to get the fluidity and surprise of image connection, the simultaneity of film montage, into painting.

Truth is, I didn't know what the hell I was doing when I got out of Cal Arts. I think I wasted a lot of time not being bold enough, or still engaged in the questioning that you get into at school.

My focus was always toward imagery of some sort.

People tend to remember and mentally classify work according to how it looks, sometimes oblivious to the underlying intent.

This is a little off subject, but I'm interested in those cases where someone is barking up the wrong tree, or misapplying their talent.

Such things happen.

Nobody lives forever and I've had a blessed life.

When I was little, my mother taught me how to use a fork and knife. The trouble is that Mother forget to teach me how to stop using them!

She’s the kind of person who either dies tragically at twenty-seven, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, or else grows up to win, like, the first-ever Nobel Prize for Awesome.

I don't feel stupid, just inadequate. After three years of studying the law, I'm very much aware of how little I know.

All my clear-eyed fish, Golden, or rainbow-sided, or purplish, Vermilion-tail'd, or finn'd with silvery gauze... My charming rod, my potent river spells.

Because I want to have my arm in good shape, I need to have my legs in good shape. Without a leg, there is no arm.

Whatever purifies you is the right path, I will not try to define it.

Now people with HIV are no longer dying, but living many years - we are around longer to potentially affect others.

If you haven't failed, you haven't tried very hard.