You usually want to get something out of a painting other than the ideas that you had in your head.

You have to be a little scared of what you're doing. Otherwise, you just paint the same masterpiece a little worse.

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

A New York audience generally likes decorative paintings, and decorative paintings go with the couch. If you change the couch, you change the painting. And when you're coming up, and the paintings aren't first-class decoration, you're at a disadvantage for publicity and sales.

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.

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

If you're going to go for 'it' you have a common thing you share with other artists; that's desperation. You jump out a window style-wise. Try to put it together before you hit the ground.