There is no purity with regards to the marketplace and art, I believe.

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.

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.

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.

Ceasing to believe caused a permanent scar in the place where one's faith had been, making it impossible to forget.

When your dream comes true, have another one! Your dream-box must never remain empty!

Good and solid analysis and a formal way of looking at a problem [are the core ingredients of good decisions].

I don't worry whether the period is contemporary or three hundred years ago. Human beings are all alike.

I view the United States, today, much like East Berlin. And I'm off the grid. I've tried for 20 years to warn the country about the Democrats and Republicans, and nobody's listening.

Persistence in prayer brings results that casual prayer does not.

There aren't a lot of roles in period movies for black people. It sucks because I love that era. But, I love musicals. I love the show Glee, and I wouldn't mind being on that either.

I used to think that all my Wings stuff was second-rate stuff, but I began to meet younger kids, not kids from my Beatle generation, who would say, We really love this song.

Winning the Ballon d’Or never bothered me. I just wanted to play for Manchester United.

When people are like each other they tend to like each other.