“Nature is like parting a curtain, you go into it …. as you would cross an empty beach to look at the ocean.”

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.

I used to meditate until I learned to stop thinking.

Beauty and happiness and life are all the same and they are pervasive, unattached and abstract and they are our only concern.

After the band loaded in and the curtain opened, we realized there was exactly one paying customer in the audience.

For those who are behind the curtain, landmarks are no longer only geographic but also biographical and personal

At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.

He knew them only ‘in Braille’ – the curtains were never drawn back in the rooms in Oxford where he met those boys. It was the most sordid life you can imagine. And he was bleating about love and dragging the fair name of Mr. Plato into the trial – after a life like that?

I was in the Rockin’ Vicars, which was the first British band to tour behind the Iron Curtain.

Who has not sat before his own heart’s curtain? It lifts: and the scenery is falling apart.

Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you – you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.

That’s it. Curtains. Off to the races. Treetops. Seashells and balloons.