“I think our minds respond to things beyond this world. Take beauty: it’s a very mysterious thing, isn’t it?”

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.

Any material may be used but the theme is the same and the response is the same for all artwork.

Once he sees this fact his feet are on the path. If you want to know the truth you will know it.

Happiness is being on the beam with life – to feel the pull of life

My paintings are certainly nonobjective. They’re just horizontal lines.

When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.

Fulfill your potential. That’s the way to happiness.

Don’t be mysterious; there isn’t the time.

It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.

From a purely positivist point of view, man is the most mysterious and disconcerting of all the objects met with by science.

There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room.

Without the emotion of the beautiful, the sublime, the mysterious, there is no art, no religion, no literature.

There are the alpha waves in the brain; another clock is the heart. And all the while tick the mysterious, ruthless clocks that regulate aging.

The writing I tend to think of as ‘good’ is good because it’s mysterious.

There is nothing in the world that is not mysterious, but the mystery is more evident in certain things than in others: in the sea, in the eyes of the elders, in the color yellow, and in music.