The backgrounds by design are a very key part of the conversation, because I want a kind of fight or pressure to exist between the figure and the background.

I think there's something important in going against the grain, and perhaps finding value in things that aren't necessarily institutionally recognized.

This is something that, as artists, we constantly deal with-throwing away the past, slaying the father, and creating the new. This desire to throw away the old rules.

All art is self-portraiture.

Painting is situational. And my particular situation exists within gender, race, class, sexuality, nation.

I believe that artists should be part of the culture. I think that my work clearly bears that out.

The art world has become so insular. The rules have become so autodidactic that, in a sense, they lose track of what people have any interest in thinking about, talking about or even looking at.

We have a lot of sort of received historical ways of viewing portraiture. And I suppose in some way I'm sort of questioning that by toying with the rules of the game.

We're wired to be empathetic and to care about the needs of others, but also to be curious about others. And I think that's just sort of in our DNA. And so portraiture is a very human act.

I guess art is in the eye of the beholder.

I think that's kind of indicative of a type of self-confidence that people develop when they recognize their own ability to create.

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.

Have I told you I love you?" he whispers.I smile. "Not since this morning.""Unforgivable. I will tell you every hour of every day.

The one thing I learned the most about acting is it takes a tremendous amount of courage to go there and stand still. It takes courage and guts to step out of your mind frame and depict something.

Anyone willing to do what is required to become president of the United States is thereby barred from taking that office. I'm only half joking

I'm here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration. We have made incredible progress.

Improving your process won't move you from good to great design. It'll move you from bad to average.

I had this wonderful, supportive mother who didn't get mad because of all the earth mucking up my bed. She just said they'd die - they needed the earth.

Our universities are so determined to impose tolerance that they'll expel you for saying what you think and never notice the irony

Capacity without education is deplorable, and education without capacity is thrown away.

Defeat should not be the source of discouragement, but a stimulus to keep plotting.