I knew I had to take my ambition more seriously, so I enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. Then, in the fall, I went on a tour of my own. I didn't go to New York because that was too well known for its art scene.

I am for an art that grows up not knowing it is art at all.

Chicago has a strange metaphysical elegance of death about it.

The art world was very small and the people got together at parties. There was less commercialism.

The right angle is one of the world's basic shapes.

The end of the '60s was a terrible time. I was in Los Angeles then, and I remember the night someone ran into the studio and told us about the Manson murders. Then suddenly something happened, the '60s disappeared. The '70s were completely different.

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