My concern is never art, but always what art can be used for.

If I declare it to be so, then this is a portrait.

I always have a good reason for taking something out but I never have one for putting something in. And I don't want to, because that means that the picture is being painted predigested.

And I think that even today, New York still has more of this unexpected quality around every corner than any place else. It's something quite extraordinary

An empty canvas is full.

I don't really trust ideas - especially good ones... Rather, I put my trust in the materials that confront me, because they put me in touch with the unknown.

I never allowed myself the luxury of those brilliant, beautiful colors until I went to India and saw people walking around in them or dragging them in the mud. I realised they were not so artificial.