I can't work completely out of my imagination-I must put my foot in a bit of truth-and then I can fly free.

I search for the realness, the real feeling of a subject, all the texture around it... I always want to see the third dimension of something... I want to come alive with the object.

Believe in yourself and believe in love. Love something.

Most artists look for something fresh to paint; frankly I find that quite boring. For me it is much more exciting to find fresh meaning in something familiar.

I think one's art goes as far and as deep as one's love goes.

I don't think that there is anything that is really magical unless it has a terrifying quality.

If you clean it up, get analytical, all the subtle joy and emotion you felt in the first place goes flying out the window.

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. Something waits beneath it; the whole story doesn't show.

When you lose your simplicity, you lose your drama.

I think you have to use your eyes as well as your emotion, and one without the other just doesn't work

What you have to do is break all the rules.

Stumbling up a hill strengthens you more than sprinting down a mountain.

It’s hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom.

America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail it knocks over a chair.

In writing the autobiography, I can really chuckle when I look at the songs. I was acting out the part. I saw myself as a victim.

I'm not going to lie. I would definitely steal stuff from set.

A lot of manuscripts that come in, you wonder by what outrageous fantasy the author believes that this should be pressed into print.

The Art Deco movement, architecture from that period and sort of the industrial aesthetic from that period. Art Deco meets tribal kind of thing. All that is my primal inspiration.

Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and I do know from what my parents tell me that I was always interested in art, although not very good at it.

Many of my works fall into the category of "Zeitgeist novels." Yet I hope that they aren't only reportage, but also attempts to convey the sense of the present to the future.