“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do.”

Painting completed my life. I lost three children and a series of other things that would have fulfilled my horrible life. My painting took the place of all of this. I think work is the best.

I love you more than my own skin.

Painting completed my life.

To paint is the most terrific thing that there is, but to do it well is very difficult.

Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic.

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.

Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?

I want to be inside your darkest everything.

My toys were those of a boy: skates, bicycles.

Mankind owns its destiny, and its destiny is the earth. We are destroying it until we have no destiny.

I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.

I paint flowers so they will not die.

I find that Americans completely lack sensibility and good taste. They are boring, and they all have faces like unbaked rolls.

I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.

I am in agreement with everything my father taught me and nothing my mother taught me.

The most important part of the body is the brain. Of my face, I like the eyebrows and eyes.

Successful people are not people who never fail but people who never give up.

Money does not change people, people change.

Just be nice to people and be someone people want to work with because if people don’t like working with you it’s just not going to work out.

It is awful hard to get people interested in corruption unless they can get some of it.

Some people don’t feel comfortable talking about their medical issues but the more people talk the more it can help others going through similar things.

Everyone in the world needs to come together to stop all the violence and racism happening in the world. Speak up when you see it happen, spread awareness of experiences (even when it’s tough), and show empathy for people every day.

Stop caring about what other people think of you – they will not create your success.

I am one of those people who believes that the solution to the world’s problems is to be found behind the Iron Curtain.