If you're going to be an artist, all life is your subject. And all your experience is part of your art. A youngster told me recently that he was going to give himself a year to see if he has talent. A year! It takes a lifetime to see if you have it. Painting is total engagement.

I love chaos.... It's the poetic element in a dull and ordered world.

I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.

I became interested in photography when I was sharing a studio with Walker Evans, and found my own sketching was inadequate.

Now, when I came on to Washington to begin my job, I was so interested in photography at that time that I really would have preferred to work with Stryker than with my department, which was more artistic if you wish.

How do you paint yellow wheat against a yellow sky? You paint it jet black.

All art is based on non-conformity.