The artist confronts chaos. The whole thing of art is, how do you organize chaos?

It was not my aim to paint about the Negro in America in terms of propaganda. It is to depict the life of my people as I know it, passionately and dispassionately as Brueghel.

Art is the soul of a people.

The most difficult object in painting is yourself because you're always at issue

When I conjure these memories, they are of the present to me, because after all, the artist is a kind of enchanter in time.

Black art has always existed. It just hasn't been looked for in the right places.

The essence of art is to recapturel the fantasy and the imagination of a child again, but without the innocence of a child.