So many things suddenly made sense for the clowns, for the whole idea. I’d been going through a struggle, particularly after 9/11; I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say. I still wanted the work to be the same kind of mixture – intense, with a nasty side or an ugly side, but also with a real pathos about the characters – and clowns have an underlying sense of sadness while they’re trying to cheer people up. Clowns are sad, but they’re also psychotically, hysterically happy.

Some people have told me they remember the film that one of my images is derived from, but in fact I had no film in mind at all.

I’m really just using the mirror to summon something I don’t even know until I see it.

I'd never even thought about compromise when I worked in my studio. The major distinction is in the priority of who I ultimately wanted to please: myself or the audience.

Dreamers are those who have achieved in love and life, because it is a dream that got them there.

I wanted to create something that people could relate to without having read a book about it beforehand.

I was meticulously copying other art and then I realized I could just use a camera and put my time into an idea instead.