I wanted to translate from one flat surface to another.In fact, my learning disabilities controlled a lot of things. I don't recognize faces, so I'm sure it's what drove me to portraits in the first place.

If you're overwhelmed by the size of a problem, break it down into smaller pieces.

Any innovation that is evident in my paintings is a direct result of something that happened in the course of making a print.

The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.

Most people are good at too many things. And when you say someone is focused, more often than not what you actually mean is they're very narrow.

There are things about signing on to a process over the long term that protect you from the buffeting winds of change.

I think I was driven to paint portraits to commit images of friends and family to memory. I have face blindness, and once a face is flattened out, I can remember it better.