I've been dealing with epic images, and I realized all of a sudden that I grew up in the age of epics.

An artist should know art history. Shock value only lasts so long.

It's weird making a drawing of painting. I start to realize that charcoal is this incredibly fragile material. I'm making images of paintings out of dust.

An artist can have an intention, but the viewer has their own subjective experience.

The artist has to be a guardian of the culture.

When I look back on everything I've done, it all somehow makes sense to me. But it doesn't make sense when you're actually doing it.

If you're fortunate enough with your history, like with Men in the Cities, your work becomes so absorbed in culture that the authorship of it doesn't exist anymore.

The translation process becomes a highly subjective thing - turning reds and blues into black-and-whiteness. It's really bizarre for me.

I'm trying to find answers. It can be quite frustrating, but at the same time, I'm never quite satisfied with what I'm doing, so I'm always looking for the next thing.

There are no guidelines for what happens when you get successful as an artist. My heroes were artists like Acconci, and he didn't make any money. That's what I thought success was.

A lot of us grew up in public. That often means that you have to fail in public too.

I pressed my hand against her hair, holding her to me, filled with the certainty that she was going to hurt me again and that I didn't have the strength to push her away before she did.

We were in a phase, through television and the movies, of living only vicariously. Even faintly sordid silliness excited us if it put us in contact with love.

The Gospel does not say, "you must do good works." Rather, it fashions us into human beings, into creatures who cannot help serve God and fellow human beings. Without a doubt, a precious effect!

I hear the cheers when they roared and the jeers when they echoed.

Whole phases of comedy have become empty; the comic rejoinder has become every man's tool.

Being present means being completely aware of all that is. It means you’re not in denial, you’re not pretending, and you’re not avoiding.

Do you get a nice monthly check from the government for dwelling on things?

Sports are my life. It is my life but it's also how I earn a living.

Melissa [ Rosenberg] really has mastered coming from character. Everything radiates from the characters in this work. You don't feel like anything's imposed.

God's loving discipline brings us face-to-face with our pride.