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

Chicago has a strange metaphysical elegance of death about it.

I am an immigrant in a sense. What happened was that my father was stationed in New York when my mother became pregnant, and she said, "I've got to go to Sweden so this child can be born there, because you don't have any idea where you're going to be transferred next."

I am for an art that tells you the time of day, or where such and such a street is. I am for an art that helps old ladies across the street.

Because my work is naturally non-meaningful, the meaning found in it will remain doubtful and inconsistent - which is the way it should be. All that I care about is that, like any startling piece of nature, it should be capable of stimulating meaning.

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

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.