We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless.
I have to experience all the ghastly, bottomless depths for life for myself; it's for that reason that I went to war, and for that reason I volunteered.
I wish there were more humor in my work than I see in it.
Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life.
Disease, insanity, and death were the angels that attended my cradle, and since then have followed me throughout my life.
I believe that the great painters with their intellect as master have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record of their emotions.
Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again become great.
There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley, and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst.
I was lucky enough as a kid to spend most of my weekends at the Fillmore East. On a great night, that was like a Holy Roller evangelical church.
Part of ego is displaying the ego. I've got ego, and I think I'm really good. But maybe I fall down in trying to sell it to people.
I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.
Why do people so love to wander? I think the civilized parts of the World will suffice for me in the future.
The auditory perception is not sufficient for our knowledge of the world; it does not have vastness.
I try to deal with the complexities of power and social life, but as far as the visual presentation goes I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty.
What difference does it make whether you're looking at a photograph or looking at a still life in front of you? You still have to look.
Smoking calms me down. It's enjoyable. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life.
By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. This was the origin of the paintings in The Frieze of Life.
I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.
I feel fully decided that we should all go to Europe together and to work as if an established Partnership for Life consisting of Husband Wife and Children.
For me an object is something living. This cigarette or this box of matches contains a secret life much more intense than that of certain human beings.
I guess I've always been quite interested in the Situationists' ideas about urbanism and spectacle and how we move through life.
