When it came to my art, I went my own way and did not follow the trends.

By the time I was a teenager, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I was a born draftsman and liked all forms of art, so I just knew that's what I wanted to do.

I hope my work has inspired young artists. I have always tried to maintain my freedom as an artist and I feel it is one of the main reasons I have been successful.

Knowing what to take out and what to leave in is what separates the men from the boys.

Good or bad, the one thing I can say about my art is, if I can quote Sinatra, I did it my way.

I want to do something that nobody has done before me. And I want to do it in such a way that nobody will forget me for it.

Intellectual labor is a common technique for the avoidance of thinking.

Expect not praise without envy until you are dead.

I don't think of myself as a guru but as a teacher. If one means 'guru' in the original sense a 'dispeller of darkness' then that certainly is my purpose.

Piano was - well, all musical instruments were taught in this very rigid, formal, classical method when I was young.

I've never seen so much suicide...The Bible is full of hope.

And I urge upon you this - which I think is wisdom - if you find you can't make seventy by any but an uncomfortable road, don't you go.

We are not permitted to linger, even with what is most intimate.

Fellow citizens, why do you burn and scrape every stone to gather wealth and take so little care of your children to whom you must one day relinquish all?

I really need to push myself and try my hardest every time, because I come from the premise that I'm not very good and I have to give my best. Otherwise, I don't deliver.

The notion that a story has a message assumes that it can be reduced to a few abstract words, neatly summarized in a school or college examination paper or a brisk critical review.