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

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.

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.

I think that's kind of indicative of a type of self-confidence that people develop when they recognize their own ability to create.

There is no light greater than truth and it shines at the heart of all creation.

I have no agenda, nothing to control.

Somewhere there is a message in the protest of the man who said, "You can't tell me that worry doesn't help. The things I worry about never happen."

Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls.

Or certainly I would need time - which I would love to have but there almost never is on a film - to just spend a week with a roomful of guys laying down these patterns.

I don't chart out the life histories of the people I play. If I did, I'd be in trouble. I work with my heart and my head, and naturally emotions follow.

Sometimes to be seen is the same thing as being saved.

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

Just me and the future, finally together. Now there was a happy ending I could believe in.

I felt overstuffed and dull and disappointed, the way I always do the day after Christmas.