Just so [becoming a chef ] that I could support my art habit. You know? I mean, this is - this is something where you've been literally given an opportunity to put the world on pause for a second.

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.

The Awakened One sees the observer and the observed as one. The unawakened one sees the observer and the observed as different.

I loved Verti. Until she jumped. That is when I felt Vertigo.

Adam has the most engaging smile and I realize, this is a private smile reserved just for me . . . like he’s waited his whole life for just one smile.

Chicken fizz! O Lord, protect all of us who toil in the vineyards of experimental chemistry!

Greyson Chance says it's gold, so it must be gold.

In the beginning was the myth.

I like to maintain a certain sense of fantasy in my life.

Great works of the imagination are not produced quickly nor do they take quick effect on the popular mind.

Immigration comes up, but the issue that is on everybody's mind is the economy.

Questions are not scary. What is scary is when people don’t have any. What is tragic is faith that has no room for them.