“To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like.”

I’m very careful not to have ideas, because they’re inaccurate.

I want to emphasize the fact that we all have the same experience and the same concern, but the artist must know exactly what the experience is. He must pursue the truth relentlessly.

I want to say that they are not what they seem to be. I want to say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are not mistake.

Give up doing the things that you do not like to do.

It is commonly thought that everything that is can be put into words.

Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.

That which takes us by surprise-moments of happiness-that is inspiration.

You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.

Pollock was terrific. I think he freed himself of all kinds of worry about this world. Ran around and dripped, and then he managed to express ecstasy.

The manipulation of materials in an artwork is a result of this state of mind.

The adventurous state of mind is a high house… The joy of adventure is unaccountable.

This is the attractiveness of artwork. It is adventurous, strenuous and joyful.

I hope I have made it clear that the work is about perfection as we are aware of it in our minds but that the paintings are very far from being perfect – completely removed in fact – even as we ourselves are.

The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can’t. You see, my paintings are not cool.

What we really want to do is serve happiness. We want everyone to be happy, never unhappy even for a moment. We want the animals to be happy.

What I say is that we’re capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.

Why does my mind circle around you? Why do planets wonder what it would be like to be you?

I like people who shake other people up and make them feel uncomfortable.

Nowadays, he lives in a world we don’t understand too well, the actor’s world. We don’t see too much of him. But he’s a good boy, my Jim.

They asked me, How did you learn to sing the blues like that? How did you learn to sing that heavy? I just opened my mouth and that’s what I sounded like.

People just don’t get as engaged in that kind of documentary – they don’t fall in love, they don’t cry, they don’t forget who they are, they don’t ride with you.

People, whether they know it or not, like their blues singers miserable. They like their blues singers to die afterwards.

When everything is together – the band, me, the audience, it’s boss! It’s just like magic.

I wouldn’t like me, if I had to be around me.