Every time you work, you have to do it all over again, to rid yourself of this dross. I suppose for a person who is not an artist or not attempting art, it is not dross, because it is the common exchange of everyday life.

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."

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.

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

My art springs from my desire to have things in the world which would otherwise never be there.

Why carve? It's a better sculpture that way. I'll never improve the block. So I just started using uncarved blocks.

I didn't study the piano - the piano studied me.