To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.”

Whatever I do seems artificial and false, to me.”

The thing is, if you believe in the unconscious - and I do - there's room for all kinds of possibilities that I don't know how you prove one way or another.”

One works without thinking how to work.”

Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.”

Most of the power of painting comes through the manipulation of space... but I don't understand that.”

I often find that having an idea in my head prevents me from doing something else. Working is therefore a way of getting rid of an idea.”

I don't know how to organise thoughts. I don't know how to have thoughts.”

I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without a conscious reason.”

As one gets older one sees many more paths that could be taken. Artists sense within their own work that kind of swelling of possibilities, which may seem a freedom or a confusion.”

I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life. ”

I don't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings. ”

Old art offers just as good a criticism of new art as new art offers of old. ”

My experience with life is that it's very fragmented. In one place certain kinds of thing occur, and in another place a different kind of thing occurs. I would like my work to have some vivid indication of those differences. I guess, in painting, it would amount to different kinds of space being represented in it.”

In my early work, I tried to hide my personality, my psychological state, my emotions. This was partly due to my feelings about myself and party due to my feelings about painting at the time. I sort of stuck to my guns for a while but eventually it seemed like a losing battle. Finally one must simply drop the reserve.”

Art is either a complaint or appeasement.”

A not complete unit or a new unit. The elements in the 3 parts should neither fit nor not fit together. One would like not to be led. Avoid the idea of a puzzle which could be solved. Remove the signs of thought. It is not thought which needs showing.”

I'm not sure what 'coming out right' means. It often means that what you do holds a kind of energy that you wouldn't just put there, that comes about through grace of some sort.”