My rule was not to paint things as they were. I wasn't copying; I was remaking them as my own.

I just started to do my own thing for about a year and a half, and I worked in the evening selling phonograph records. Then I said to myself, "I'm afraid I have to go to New York after all."

Mine was not pop art. I maybe started with a subject, but I changed the subject.

I was always interested in drawing. As a child, I started my own country, which was called Neubern. It was located in the South Atlantic. I did the documentation of Neubern in great detail. I drew everything that was there, all the houses and all the cars and all the people. We even had a navy and an air force. I spent a lot of time drawing.

In 1958 I finally found a large enough apartment on the Lower East Side, where I reverted to figure painting. I drew and painted quite a lot of figures and nudes. People would come and pose for me.

I don't do abstract art because I don't find it as interesting as I do subjects and depictions.

My rule was not to paint things as they were. I wasn't copying; I was remaking them as my own.