Dramatic use of color, harmonious design, the interplay of light and shadow across a variety of textures, the portrayal of the figure and other subject matter that reflects the sophistication and beauty I find in nature - all presented from a unique point of view - can only be successfully achieved with a sound command of the painter's craft... history will determine how successful I have been.

If you find yourself with a weakness, attack it... don't develop a technique that avoids your weaknesses.

Nature is the best and really the only real vocabulary that an artist can legitimately work with.

If you can see it, and if you know your color, you can paint it.

We... joked a little about presidential portraits. He [Bill Clinton] told me that he and Harrison Ford had been joking recently about how chins drop with age, and he didn't want to look that way.

If you really want to seriously think about life, and therefore take painting very seriously... and take seriously the joys that it can bring to one, then you want to go to museums. You want to study the great of the past.

A language not based on universal symbols or sensations is gibberish, a pitfall of modern art, no longer modern.