To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.

To do a drawing for a painting most often means doing something very sketchy and schematic and then later making it polished.

In my early work, I tried to hide my personality, my psychological state, my emotions. This was partly due to my feelings about myself and partly due to my feelings about painting at the time. I sort of stuck to my guns for a while but eventually it seemed like a losing battle. Finally one must simply drop the reserve.

There was very little art in my childhood.

In the place where I was a child, there were no artists and there was no art, so I really didn't know what that meant. I think I thought it meant that I would be in a situation different than the one that I was in.

I don't know how to organise thoughts. I don't know how to have thoughts.

One night I dreamed that I painted a large American flag, and the next morning I got up and I went out and bought the materials to begin it.