There were some types of sanctions that happen in the public world that made my work acceptable, where someone looks at the paintings and they don't - they may go, "okay," and then look at it in a different sort of way. Instead of just looking at it as some type of wild art, they look at it in a historical perspective or context.

Maybe my work looks a little crazy, a little insane, but I don't really see myself as a crazy artist or a shaman artist.

I like when people get really close to the paintings, when they can't really get away from them, I like them to operate in that way on the viewer.

I think that truth is stranger than fiction, and it's nice to know the people you're making a movie about.

The thing about living in New York is that there are other artists; that is the most difficult, I think they are the hardest critics.

I never paid much attention to being Jewish when I was a kid. In fact, I'd say my religion was more surfing than Judaism - that's what I spent most of my time doing.

There are generations of people who have never seen a big plate painting in person. And they don't know what the hell they look like, they don't know what it feels like to stand in a room with them.