Practically all great artists accept the influence of others. But... the artist with vision sees his material, chooses, changes, and by integrating what he has learned with his own experiences, finally molds something distinctly personnel.

Memory embellishes Life. Forgetfulness makes it possible.

You should always respect what you are and your culture because if your art is going to mean anything, that is where it comes from.

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

You don't paint what you see, you paint what you feel.

Painting is the act of discovery and you're constantly enlarging your horizon or finding yourself every time you paint.

What I've attempted to do is establish a world through art in which the validity of my Negro experience could live and make its own logic.