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.

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

You put down one color and it calls for an answer. You have to look at it like a melody.

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

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

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