One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work.

The abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can clarify in paint.

Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense.

I long ago came to the conclusion that even if I could put down accurately the thing I saw and enjoyed, it would not give the observer the kind of feeling it gave me. I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at-not copy it.

I like to convey the idea that art is important in everyday life.

I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see—and I don't.

Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense. A hill or tree cannot make a good painting just because it is a hill or tree. It is lines and colors put together so that they may say something.