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

I hate flowers - I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move.

My first memory is of the brightness of light — light all around.

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.

I took back a barrel of bones to New York. They were my symbols of the desert, but nothing more. I haven't seen enough to think of any other symbolism. The skulls were there and I could say something with them.

It seems to me very important to the idea of democracy to the country and to the world eventually that all men and women stand equal under the sky.

To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.