My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me.

I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary--you're happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.

It seems to be my mission in life to wait on a dog.

I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at - not copy it.

I'd been taught to paint like other people, and I thought, what's the use? I couldn't do any better than they, or even as well. I was just adding to the brushpile. So I quit.

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.

I believe an artist is the last person in the world who can afford to be affected.