More important than having a romance with the object that I'm drawing, is to have a romance with the mark that I am making.

My attitude towards drawing is not necessarily about drawing. It's about making the best kind of image I can make, it's about talking as clearly as I can.

I work every day. I work all day. I've never had a holiday. It's all I really want to do. It's what I'm here for. . . . More and more, I'm just so grateful I was born an artist.

I do not think that obsession is funny or that not being able to stop one's intensity is funny.

The figure is still the only thing I have faith in in terms of how much emotion it's charged with and how much subject matter is there.

Autobiography is the most fascinating thing you can do because you get to touch the human condition. And in the end, what else is there? To me, it's the ultimate affirmation of life, and a miracle of this transient, extremely fragile organism. To celebrate that, I think, is a noble thing to do.

I have come to terms with a lot of things, because, when all's said and done, there's really very little one can do about a lot of things. You just accept them. The point is you just have to keep on working and you just have to keep on living.

For me, drawing is everything, because it informs everything. It even informs my poetry. It's the way I begin everything.