Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness.

It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing and stretching one's arms again.

That is why we profess a spiritual kinship with primitive and archaic art.

I would like to say to those who think of my pictures as serene, whether in friendship or mere observation, that I have imprisoned the most utter violence in every inch of their surface.

We assert that the subject is crucial and only that subject matter is valid which is tragic and timeless.

From him I got my love for music, and for many years I was the classical music critic for magazines that have since folded, such as Musical America and High Fidelity. During the last year of his life, I would come to the studio, and he would arrange a corner for me with a canvas and paints. I don't think that I saw him paint. He didn't allow anyone to watch him. That was his own private affair.