There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it.

The artist is a kind of a seer and by nature he is optimistic because he believes in the future.

The artist creates the material that we look back upon as part of history.

But if it's true it's beautiful. Truth is beautiful. And so my whole work is about what amounts to a reverence for life itself.

Artists are a very important part of our society because they make a great contribution to our values. The artist creates a value system that we all grow up on, whether we know it or not.

It's the not the subject that interests me as much as my perception of the subject.

Seeing your work on the wall is like the ultimate thing that can happen.