I find I can't get rid of my trashiness as an artist. A lot of my themes in painting, to the extent that there are intentional themes, are meant to bring that conundrum into high relief.

A lot of times maturing as an artist is just starting to do the things you like to do.

Your style is who you are when you’re not trying to be clever or better than you actually are.

I think a big problem with art school is that it makes people feel like they have to be interested in everything that's of high quality.

You have to like everything that you're painting. Maybe on a narrative level it seems harsh... but I like everything in all my paintings. It's as if you need to be less intelligent at that level.

There is no misery in art. All art is about saying yes, and all art is about its own making.

Culture is for old people. When you're young you have your body, and that's all you need.

I think what I do is find a cliché and try to believe in it, try to get to where I don't laugh at it.

Instead of last man standing, it'll be last man smiling.

It's a huge thing when people realize across the culture that paper money is paper. And that there's no fixed value - it's all political. That all value is set by a political authority, basically.

That was an important development for me, just realizing that you need to follow your pleasure, at least as a painter. I think any kind of artist needs to, no matter what you're doing.

The simplest person who worship God is wiser than the supposed wisest people who worshiped a worthless substitute.

If Jesus Christ isn't the central figure in our lives and in our churches, we're only fooling ourselves.

In magic, it takes two or three years for me to create a 5-minute illusion for me to get it to the level I want.

Everyone suffers wrongs for which there is no remedy

Poetry can cause irreparable harm when misapplied

The Miami Beach audience is the greatest audience in the world!

I guess I thought the strength of my wanting would be enough to make him appear.

The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them.

Culturally, the First World War is the war that stands in for other wars.

Usually when someone believes in a particular religion, his attitude becomes more and more a sharp angle pointing away from himself. In our way the point of the angle is always toward ourselves.