I keep plastering it until it comes around to what I want, in terms of all I know and think about painting now, as well as in terms of the initial observation.

I don't go into the studio with the idea of 'saying' something. What I do is face the blank canvas and put a few arbitrary marks on it that start me on some sort of dialogue.

Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.

All paintings start out of a mood, out of a relationship with things or people, out of a complete visual impression

Mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position.

In a successful painting everything is integral - all the parts belong to the whole. If you remove an aspect or element you are removing its wholeness.

One wants to see the artifice of the thing as well as the subject.

If you get an image try to destroy it.

I would like the colors, their shapes and positions to be arrived at in response to and dictated by the condition of the total space at the time they are considered.

My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful, the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles.

I came to mistrust my desire to explode the picture and supercharge it in some way… what is more important is a feeling of strength in reserve – tension beneath calm.

The thoughts on the mind come out of the mouth.

I feel about New York as a child whose father is a bank robber. Not perfect but I still love him.

You get to an age when you lose people close to you.

I'm asking the American people to rise above the noise and the clutter of our broken politics.

Whenever I leave Manhattan, I get the bends!

In the continuing debate over the morality of enhanced interrogation, an essential consideration is often overlooked: intent.

Love is the recognition of beauty.

I feel sorry for anyone that I am obsessed with. I am worse than gum in your hair, very, very close to the roots.

Perfection is a polished collection of errors.

Animals have always left me with a curiosity about human nature. I trust animals more than most people.