You grow up trying to interpret, worshipping, visual symbols. It's a body-soaked imagery that you're looking at.

I think art is about human existence. Almost by default I'm expressing my experiences as a human.

I think the benefit of a Catholic childhood is your belief in visual symbols as transmitters of information and clues about life, whether it's the mystery of life or life in general.

My problem painting from my life was I found that you can't paint dirt without romanticising it.

History as well as life itself is complicated -- neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.

For me beauty is valued more than anything - the beauty that is manifest in a curved line or in an act of creativity.

I do dislike people with Moral Aims. Everyone asks me why I learn Arabic, and when I say I just like it, they looked shocked and incredulous.

Well, it's always nice to know the fans didn't forget what you did when you played in the NHL.

I'm not supposed to know anything about foreign policy. Just thought I'd throw that out.

Being critical of art is a way of showing art respect.

[Alfred] Hitchcock was very interested in the image on the screen.As is any good cinema director. That is the language they speak. It is not literature, it is images on screen.

The truths that seem most truthful, if you look at them from all sides, if you look at them close up, turn out to be either half truths or lies.

Don't just give me an advance. I want a percentage.

Friendship with the wise gets better with time, as a good book gets better with age.