Actually, you want to go into an area where you're frightened. Otherwise, you're just going to be repainting beautiful paintings, but a little duller each time.

Part of what Im about is seeing how I can paint the same thing differently instead of different things the same way.

My mother thought I would have a hard life as a painter. My father thought the highest thing a person could be was an architect. Below that was a painter. So he thought it was much better than being, say, a doctor.

What's in front of me is what's most interesting.

I like to make an image that is so simple you can't avoid it, and so complicated you can't figure it out.

Realist painting has to do with leaving out a lot of detail. I think my painting can be a little shocking in all that it leaves out. But what happens is that the mind fills in what's missing . . . Painting is a way of making you see what I saw.

Make a painting you can work on for a long period, and make it look like it doesn't show any effort.