You have to have the time to feel sorry for yourself in order to be a good abstract expressionist.

There is no reason not to consider the world as one gigantic painting.

You begin with the possibilities of the material.

I don't really trust ideas - especially good ones... Rather, I put my trust in the materials that confront me, because they put me in touch with the unknown.

The only thing that I could get with chance, and I never was able to use it, was that I would end up with something quite geometric or the spirit that I was interested in, indulging in, was gone.

It is neither Art for Art, nor Art against Art. I am for Art, but for Art that has nothing to do with Art. Art has everything to do with life, but it has nothing to do with Art.

I've not been cursed with talent, which could be a great inhibitor.

An empty canvas is full.

The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.

I don't think of myself as making art. I do what I do because I want to, because painting is the best way I've found to get along with myself.

Even at this late date, I go into my studio, and I think 'Is this going to be it? Is it the end?' You see, nearly everything terrorizes me. When an artist loses that terror, he's through.

You only honor and worship God when you do things without expecting anything in return

Are all humans human? Or are some more human than others?

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Sometimes the right choice seems great at the moment, but then suddenly it's as if somebody detonated a suicide bomb.

If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children.

Bring Your Child to Work Day -- that's how we got George W. Bush.

I believe it has been said that one copy of The Times contains more useful information than the whole of the historical works of Thucydides.

I have to be careful what I eat before going onstage, to avoid an upset stomach.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

I've had it with you and your emotional constipation!