I've not been cursed with talent, which could be a great inhibitor.

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

The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history.

This was my first encounter with art as art (he saw 'Pinky' painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and 'The Blue Boy" painted by Thomas Gainborough).. ..somebody actually MADE those paintings.. ..(it) was the first time I realized you could be an artist.

I wouldn't use the same color in a picture in more than one place

There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself in relationship to painting, and that was attitudes like tortured, struggle, pain.

Screwing things up is a virtue. Being correct is never the point. I have an almost fanatically correct assistant, and by the time she re-spells my words and corrects my punctuation, I can't read what I wrote. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.