The epiphany for me was that I wasn't a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the streets as posters.
I moved to New York in the 1970s and started writing when I was at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program.
One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.
SPIT ALL OVER SOMEONE WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MILK IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THEIR PERSONALITY FAST.
Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.
To do a drawing for a painting most often means doing something very sketchy and schematic and then later making it polished.
I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life.
Whenever you finish an artwork and the viewer comes and views it, at that moment you've given up control.
I wish there was a painter who could paint as well as Ted Williams could hit.
For me, drawing is a way of navigating the imagination, and it remains the fundamental vehicle of my practice. Drawing allows me to be at my most inventive.
There was a time when meanings were focused and reality could be fixed; when that sort of belief disappeared, things became uncertain and open to interpretation.
I stay up nights and fiddle with my opera designs. It's a bit obsessive. That's why I can't do it all the time.
I only like artists older than myself. Time is so important. It's always been the same way, I guess.
Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.
Every time that we've ever fought, we fought to keep from bein' destroyed. We've never started a war.
On the 17th of May, the Delos put out to sea. I was immediately affected with sea-sickness, which, however, lasted but a short time. I remained on deck constantly, forcing myself to exercise.
I think artists are always investigating how to have an economic, political platform. At one time, artists were supported by the Church. Then they were supported also by the state.
I'm very representational some of the time, and a little all of the time. But when you're painting out of your unconscious, figures are bound to emerge.
If you can't find your inspiration by walking around the block one time, go around two blocks-but never three.
I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.
An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.
