So sometimes you have to play your hand and sort of push in a direction. And I think that masculinity is the driving point for a lot of the way that people, like, posture in the work.

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.

It's the words we whisper to ourselves that make us who we are.

We all end up dying in the end. It’s just a question of how and when.

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Never elated while one man's oppress'd Never dejected while another's bless'd.

Making sushi is an art, and experience is everything.

Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe.

We must kill them in war, just because they live beyond the river. If they lived on this side, we would be called murderers.

I just continue to grind on my own. You can't deny good music at the end of the day.

Life is tough, but if you are stupid, it's a lot tougher.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether I do not make her more sport than she makes me?