What do little kids do? They crawl on the floor and they build with blocks. I just continued to do that for the rest of my life.

Matter as matter rather than matter as symbol is a conscious political position, essentially Marxist.

You can always find somebody to beat up. This goes back to the schoolyard. Most men would think, Don't chum with girls. But I chummed with girls.

What I made depended on what I found on the street. At least in the beginning, my materials came from the street.

Artists tend to be beyond embarrassment the way little children tend to be beyond embarrassment.

I think it was Henry Moore who was asked where he got his ideas for his sculptures, and he said something like, "I continue to do as an adult the things I did as a child." I think that's what art is about.

I grew up in a brick house. What's wrong with bricks? An Englishman took me aside and said, "You have to understand, all the bricklayers in England are Irish, and the English hate the Irish."