Waterlilies always come in Buddhist sculpture. The Buddhas all stand on lotus pedestals, because the lotus is grown from the mud. The mud represents the stained world, a dirty world, but growing from the dirt is such a beautiful, pure thing. This is the way the spirit should be.

I don't love the postmodern statement: "You shouldn't be spiritual if you are the artist."

However fake the subject, once photographed, it's as good as real.

It's pre-photography, a fossilization of time, Americans have done the Zen garden to death. I wanted to do something different.

Not any particular religion or school of religion, but being an artist, you have to be spiritual, in a way.

The Buddhist concept is that it takes 48 days to get near this state [of death]. So it's a slow process, moving into, not a permanent death, but the world of the dead.

Life is one passage and then you keep moving into another state.