People were very affected by the war. But it didn't mean you stopped painting unless you were called into the Army; then you just couldn't paint. But otherwise one continued.

As I say, I as an abstract artist was active politically.

I am never free of the past. I have made it crystal clear that I believe the past is part of the present which becomes part of the future.

I have never been able to understand the artist whose image never changes.

The key is what is within the artist. The artist can only paint what she or he is about.

I like a canvas to breathe and be alive. Be alive is the point. And, as the limitations are something called pigment and canvas, let's see if I can do it.

I knew de Kooning and I went to his studio so I knew about de Kooning's work. But only a little handful knew about it, you know. Maybe there were ten people that knew about it.