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

You wait until life is in the frame, then you have the permission to click. I like the adventure of waiting until the whole frame is full.

I'm not so facile that I can accomplish or find out what I want to know or explore enough of the possibilities and a way of making a painting, say, in just one painting or two paintings.

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.

There was a whole language that I could never make function for myself; it revolved around words like 'tortured', 'struggle'. 'pain'.. .I could never see these qualities in paint - I could see them in life and art that illustrates life. But I could not see such conflicts in the materials and I knew that it had to be in the attitude of the painter.

Basically painting is total idiocy.

I'm quite taken aback when I get something that appears to be technically a good photograph, because it's not necessarily my intention.