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

Art is a means to function thoroughly and passionately in a world that has a lot more to it than paint.

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.

The only thing that I could get with chance, and I never was able to use it, was that I would end up with something quite geometric or the spirit that I was interested in, indulging in, was gone.

Basically painting is total idiocy.

I don't like masterpieces having one-night stands in collectors' homes between auctions.

And also the new excitement and variety of ways that the abstract expressionists were applying paint. You could put it on as though it were colored air and it would be painting.