It's almost impossible to reconcile the realities of how one feels during the day, hour by hour. But I approach things not cynically.

You'd have to be completely crazy not to be influenced by and take from other artists. It's completely impossible not to.

It is impossible to know what fate will bring. If you love to write or paint, you will keep on writing or painting, and things will either work out or not, and you just have to keep being in the process.

My mother was the influence on me - my father was absent. He was a diamond dealer; he was doing wonderful things in the background, and women were left at home. So my mother really was in charge of everything: the ballet, dance lessons, piano lessons, and latkes.

I said to myself, how could anyone not have illustrated this before?

The Elements of Style.