Your best as an artist is to create something that resonates for you.

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.

Avoid impious people, run from fools, seek out the wise.

It is easier to believe that there was nothing before there was something than that there was something before there was nothing.

Berkeley retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is capable of being denied without absurdity.

Enjoy the present day, as distrusting that which is to follow.

Sometimes you watch one of your favorite shows from 20 years ago and you think, 'I'm loving this, but golly, it's going at the speed of a snail.'

I must say, I am thrilled with my fan base. For some reason some of them are quite young, so they are quite frightened.

My parents were strict, but it was the world I lived in. I had no idea there was a world outside.

When you look out the other way toward the stars you realize it's an awful long way to the next watering hole.

If the movie is terrible, then the 3D sucks. If the movie is fantastic, then the 3D is good.

When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years. It's an area of intense interest. I can't say more than that.