Take a relief. You draw it, you carve it out. Later you build it up from a flat surface. There is no other way to do a sculpture - you either add or you subtract.

I could see the works just living in reproductions. The work lives on like fantasy. Some live even better as just an image.

Maybe an artist's position in society is different today because it's more individualistic. You're not a direct servant anymore to the patron-you're an indirect servant, or a servant with a choice, or maybe you could not even serve. It's the way you make something. You draw it, you carve it out. Later you build it up from a flat surface. There is no other way to do a sculpture - you either add or you subtract. If you don't enjoy making work, then it's bad... artwork is brutal for so many people... I like the idea of an artist as sombody who works.

I think when tattoos are new and colorful, they look bad. But they look better the older and more bleached out they become.

Many artists who don't go off to art school come to New York. It's about what you learn when you're here.

I always have a lot of things going on because some things take years to make and others take five minutes. I like that there's always something going on. Working doesn't have such a momentous feel - like it's all or nothing.

I love seeing tattoos on 60-year-olds who have had them for 40 years.