Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous.

I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.

I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot.

I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

Most Young Kings Get Their Heads Cut Off.

If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence. It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind.

Every single line means something.

I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think about life.

The more I paint the more I like everything.

Fire will attract more attention than any other cry for help.

The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them.

…my life has been a remarkable one. Maybe one day someone will write a book about me . . .” "I’ve never much cared for horror stories.

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge.

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I'm going to grow artistically.

If you can’t out iterate someone who is trying to copy you, you’re toast anyway.

All my high school papers were written in the rare book room.

Because of his compassion Owen was always in trouble with his partners. They would have much preferred a tough, down-to-earth manager who would get a days work out of the little bastards.

Dreck is dreck and no amount of fancy polish is going to make it anything else.

With a chemical alarm, you're going to build one that is oversensitive because you would rather the alarm go off and give you a false alarm than to err on the other side

The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read.