All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.

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.

I'm very learning-disabled, and I think it drove me to what I'm doing.

I knew from the age of five what I wanted to do. The one thing I could do was draw. I couldn't draw that much better than some of the other kids, but I cared more and I wanted it badly.

Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.

I think the problem with the arts in America is how unimportant it seems to be in our educational system.