I think most artists create out of despair. The very nature of creation is not a performing glory on the outside, it's a painful, difficult search within.

I think all great innovations are built on rejections.

But when I fell in love with black, it contained all color. It wasn’t a negation of color. It was an acceptance. Because black encompasses all colors. Black is the most aristocratic color of all.... You can be quiet and it contains the whole thing.

In the end, as you get older and older, your life is your life, and you are alone with it.

Who is an artist? I say we take a title. No one gives it to us. We make our lives.

True strength is delicate.

And I saw darkness for weeks. It never dawned on me that I could come out of it, but you heal. Nature heals you, and you do come out of it. All of a sudden I saw a crack of light ... then all of a sudden I saw another crack of light. Then I saw forms in the light. And I recognized that there was no darkness, that in darkness there'll always be light.