There is no self-portrait of me.

Art is a line around your thoughts.

On my first days here I did not start work immediately but, as planned, I took it easy for a few days - flicked through books, studied Japanese art a little.

There is always hope, as long as the canvases are empty.

If the weather is good I go into the nearby wood - there I am painting a small beech forest (in the sun) with a few conifers mixed in. This takes until 8 'o clock.

Even when I have to write a simple letter I'm scared stiff as if faced with looming seasickness.

True relaxation, which would do me the world of good, does not exist for me.

Whoever wants to know something about me - as an artist which alone is significant - they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.

I can paint and draw. I believe this myself and a few other people say that they believe this too. But I'm not certain of whether it's true.

There is nothing that special to see when looking at me. I'm a painter who paints day in day out, from morning till evening - figure pictures and landscapes, more rarely portraits.

There is nothing that special to see when looking at me.

Ever since the other boy had arrived half way through the semester, he'd been so blue, he was practically iridescent.

I can plunk out enough chords to write a song, but I'm completely afraid to play guitar in front of other people. It's a fear of failure, I guess.

Before too long I was playing badly out in some bars around Memphis, but as soon as I learned a few chords I started writing my own stuff.

Granted, this system is insane, but we must not let sanity stand in the way of airport security.

Even if we are dead we help each other in some little way.

We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving ourselves because we were made to do these things.

Distrust those who love you extremely upon a slight acquaintance, and without any visible reason.

In the small town of Hannibal, Missouri, when I was a boy, everybody was poor, but didn't know it; and everybody was comfortable and did know it.

While I find inspiration in real life, the actual stories are, thankfully, works of fiction - which, given the considerable turmoil in my character's lives, is probably a good thing!

If I had spent a quarter of the time that I spent manipulating my sexuality in front of a piano instead, I would be the most gifted piano player of my lifetime.