Art was something that I was really interested in, probably more so than writing or anything else.

And after a while, you just pare things down more and more and more, until you get to certain basic things which just - basic ideas which just seem to work for you over and over again.

I mean, part of the justification for art is art history, the fact that you're part of this tradition. You can't really operate outside of it. So looking for what this work is really about, if I look at Velázquez, if I look at Las Meninas or The Tapestry Weavers [1657] or something and really study it and try to figure out what that painting is really about, then I find relationships between what I'm trying to do and what he was doing.

I always had a fairly decent income, coming in just from the art.

I try not to manipulate reality... What will happen, will happen. Let things be themselves.

I know where the mistakes are. Nothing is perfect and I understand that.

You can't make somebody care about what you're doing. Either they get it, either there's that connection - or they don't.