When I began experimenting, people weren't ready for it. Once it's in its second and third generational stages, people can accept it.

I wanted to paint in a folk-artist-y way. My heroes were Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, and Rembrandt. I think Picasso is about as a modern as I got. But I incorporated things that they rejected as well as movements that happened later.

I loved Debussy, Stravinsky, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, anything with romantic melodies, especially the nocturnes. Nietzsche was a hero, especially with Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He gets a bad rap; hes very misunderstood. Hes a maker of individuals, and he was a teacher of teachers.

Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick.

Rationally I have no hope, irrationally I believe in miracles.

All the news of home you read, more about the war and of bloody changes.

You wake up one day and suddenly realize that your youth is behind you, even though you're still young at heart.