There was one reviewer from the 'New York Times,' I forget his name, who said I was 'death warmed over.' I wrote him back that I knew more about death than he did. The 'Times' fired him, put him in the cooking department!
If a person is insane or troubled, you first have to get the person to admit that they have a problem before you can solve anything.
Believe it or not, there were very few books on art, years ago.
I was on a panel with Marshall McLuhan in Canada. Someone says, 'Mr. McLuhan, I read your book, and I disagree with you.' And he says, 'Oh, you read my book? Then you only know half the story.'
The very, very beginning is that my mother and father were aviators.
The best thing about being an artist is the free clothing and getting to kiss pretty girls.
I painted the Astor-Victoria sign seven times, and it's 395 feet wide and 58 feet high. I dropped a gallon of purple paint on Seventh Avenue and 47th Street from 15 stories up and didn't kill anybody. I dropped a brush at Columbus Circle. It fell on a guy's camel-hair coat.
People can remember their childhood, but events from four or five years ago are in a never-never land.
I think of my actions every day: what seems to be important and what isn't.
I used to know Madison Avenue advertisers. I didn't like 'em. Bunch of jerks.
I hate getting old, but I'm sticking with it!
I can handle ups and downs.
I painted billboards above every candy store in Brooklyn.
When things become peculiar, frustrating and strange, I think it's a good time to start painting.
We may seem insignificantly small, but we exist. So I remain optimistic.
When I got my first loft, I still didn't know what I was going to paint... There were long stretches when I just sat there and thought without interruption.
The automobile crash was... devastating in ways that I still cannot really bear to think about... It took me many years to recover. In some ways, I never have.
I feel lucky that I've been able to make a living from painting any idea that comes into my head.
I travel a lot.
The image is not important.
