An artist is forced by others to paint out of his own free will.

The attitude that nature is chaotic and that the artist puts order into it is a very absurd point of view, I think. All that we can hope for is to put some order into ourselves.

I don't know to what extent someone can BECOME an artist - you either are or you aren't - and if you are you'll HAVE to make your way to some kind of sickly light, no matter how terrible the soil you were seeded in your nature will out somehow.

There's a great difference between being popular and being an artist.

To me, every interview, even if you love the artist, needs to be somewhat adversarial. Which doesn't mean you need to attack the person, but you do need to look at it like you're trying to get information that has not been written about before.

Whoever wants to know something about me - as an artist which alone is significant - they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want.

Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

A good artist has less time than ideas.

The concept that an artist would be revered by popular culture is an immediate dismissal of his relevance as an artist.

I didn't want to be an artist.

Of course, the kids who had never heard of a person called Ben E. King were then aware of the name associated with the song. That gave a tremendous lift to me as an artist.

The artist I wanna be like is Michael Jackson. I'll get the house with the roller coaster and the rides and a disco, and I'll invite all my friends and just stay at home.

I also had this artist friend who'd paint butterflies and things like that on my head.

If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.