Holding together a kind of tension. When you see a painting that's really good that's what it's doing.

I respect all artists, just some more than the others. Because it's something that really needs to be done.

Every time I open the paper, there's some symphony orchestra collapsing somewhere in the United States. What the hell is going on? And then you find out that the board members try to run these things as businesses.

Western art has a certain relationship to nature.

In this kind of super-capitalistic society, everything is turned into money. And one of the great things about art is it isn't worth anything. It's absolutely free. It's going to get made no matter what.

These days people believe they can go into art and make a living. We didn't have that. The abstract expressionists were older, by the time they even got a show. Now people come right out of school and sell.

Holding together a kind of tension. When you see a painting that's really good that's what it's doing.