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The thing is, when you paint somebody in all of their colors, they're never all bad or all good. Even the worst person has humanity in there somewhere.

It's a waste of time to think that if you colored a painting red what might have happened if you painted it black.

Mostly people are ignorant, what is the language of painting. You know, they're ignorant. It is so difficult to make them aware, but time will teach them.

People of color have a constant frustration of not being represented, or being misrepresented, and these images go around the world.

In art, there is no need for color; I see only light and shade. Give me a crayon, and I will paint your portrait.

Everybody thinks they know what art should be. But very few of them have the sense that is necessary to experience painting, that is the sense of sight, that sees colors and forms as living reality in the picture.

At first I had some idea that the absence of color made the work more physical. Early on I was very involved with the notion of the painting as an object and tended to attack that idea from different directions.

Painters hate having to explain what their work is about. They always say, 'It's whatever you want it to be' - because I think that's their intention, to connect with each person's subconscious, and not to try and dictate.

You're going to react to a painting in a way that the painting demands you react.