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.

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

My work doesn't have the same rules as, say, Andy [Warhol]'s work. But it's gathered together for the simple reason that we all worked with the images and objects around us.

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.

When you're working with an object, you can put in almost anything you want, you can make it abstract.

Art is a technique of communication. The image is the most complete technique of all communication.

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.