I don't mess around with my subconscious

One has to believe in what one is doing, one has to commit oneself inwardly, in order to do painting. Once obsessed, one ultimately carries it to the point of believing that one might change human beings through painting. But if one lacks this passionate commitment, there is nothing left to do. Then it is best to leave it alone.

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.

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

But I was in awe of the painters; I mean I was new in New York, and I thought the painting that was going on here was just unbelievable

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.

Well, I like way downtown near the Battery. I lived down there at this time and for, I guess, the following well, this is where I moved to uptown and I've been here for four years and this is 1965.