We are creatures like everything else in our world.

I wanted everybody to see a sunrise and be knocked out by the miracle of it, the world being created every morning.

I look at the textures, surfaces, colors, and the individual objects in the painting. And then I wonder: what are the relationships among them? Those relationships are everything.

Every book is a unique experience.

You have to learn how to do each book. It's a different world, a different show.

I like the computer! It's a gadget, and I love gadgets. But it's very complicated and I didn't think I'd have the time to learn.

People have their own ideas how about they should appear.

It took me a long time to stop thinking that someone else knew what a great painting was. I was never sure.

I'm the expert when it comes to my paintings. I think all great painters have to have that confidence in what they are seeking and when they're getting there.

I almost always see what I didn't achieve, to a smaller or greater extent.

I didn't say you weren't, but moving on the hope that some man will hire you seems a bit risky.''No more so than diggin' in the dirt for your dreams—only to find it's your grave you've been diggin'.

Living is a process of developing oneself. Without experiencing pain from disconcerting periods of our lives, we would be different person, perhaps a lesser person.

Does he know I can never feel anything for anyone ever again?

You will gain energy by meditating deeply, by speaking the truth, by learning to be still and by avoiding the crowd, most of the time, not all of the time.

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul, and taste.

Schooling, instead of encouraging the asking of questions, too often discourages it.

I find the constraints of drama actually freeing: It brings everything down to character and action.

With you nothing is simple yet nothing is simpler

Steadfast benevolence, sustained by the wisdom that anything other than benevolence is painful, protects the mind from all afflictions.

I know that Nature designs that this whole continent, not merely these thirty-six states, shall be, sooner or later, within the magic circle of the American union.