My art is about paying attention - about the extremely dangerous possibility that you might be art.

Every time I've moved, my work has changed radically.

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.

Work is my joy... Work is my therapy, I don't know anybody who loves work as much as I do.

While my classmates were reading their textbooks, I drew in the margins.

For the first time, I wasn't embarrassed by the look of beauty, of elegance, because when you see someone who has only one rag as their property, but it happens to be beautiful and pink and silk, beauty doesn't have to be separated... I have always said that you shouldn't have biases, you shouldn't have prejudices. But before that [before his trip to India, circa 1975] I'd never been able to use purple, because it was too beautiful.