I always try to balance the light with the heavy - a few tears of human spirit in with the read more

I always try to balance the light with the heavy - a few tears of human spirit in with the sequins and the fringes.

Mine was the role of the oilcan in making the machinery clunk around.

Mine was the role of the oilcan in making the machinery clunk around.

You've gotta be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?

You've gotta be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith read more

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details read more

I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good.

Of all lies, art is the least untrue.

Of all lies, art is the least untrue.

Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.

Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.

Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of read more

Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, read more

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, acknowledges art as a means of knowing the world, then art is relegated to a kind of rumpus room of the mind and the irresponsibility of the artist and the irrelevance of art to actual living becomes part and parcel of the practice of art.