Pictures must be miraculous: the instant one is completed, the intimacy between the creation and the creator is ended.

To me art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risk.

There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend: One day, the black will swallow the red.

I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.

The most interesting painting is one that expresses more of what one thinks than of what one sees

A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience.

There is more power in telling little than in telling all.

If you are only moved by color relationships, you are missing the point. I am interested in expressing the big emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom.

The artist invites the spectator to take a journey within the realm of the canvas... Without taking the journey, the spectator has really missed the essential experience of the picture.

You think my paintings are calm, like windows in some cathedral? You should look again. I'm the most violent of all the American painters. Behind those colours there hides the final cataclysm.

Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit.

The health of your future kids does not start with their birth—it starts with you, right now, well before you plan to impregnate your wife.

I think an artist's responsibility is more complex than people realize.

The consummate gentleman on the planet today is George Clooney, who never fails to go the extra mile for people. Every person matters to George.

People are tried and convicted in the newspapers and on television before they ever see a courtroom.

It is curious how tyrannical the habit of reading is, and what shifts we make to escape thinking. There is no bore we dread being left alone with so much as our own minds.

Three-quarters of the flags, borders and anthems sitting at the U.N. today were not there 60 some-odd years ago.

Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.

Don't expect your genius to be discovered; do what you must do because it gives you joy. Don't expect your love to be accepted. Love because it justifies your life.

Indolence is stagnation; employment is life.

Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.