When I finish a painting, it usually looks as surprising to me as to anyone else.

My language is what I use, and if I lost that, I wouldnt be able to say anything.

I don't really have a historical overview of my work at all. I'm not an art historian. I don't see that there's this period and that period.

I don't look at the work of my contemporaries very much; I tend to look at pictures by dead artists. It's much easier to get near their paintings.

In the United States there has been a kind of a structure in the Modern art world. The New York School was nearly a coherent thing-for a minute.

I look at my pictures, and I think, 'Well, how did I do that?

I'm vulnerable to criticism. Any artist is, because you work alone in your studio and, until recently, critics were the only way you'd get any feedback.