“My first memory is of the brightness of light...light all around. I was sitting among pillows on a quilt on the ground...very large white pillows... „

“So I said to myself-I'll paint what I see-what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking the time to look at it-I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. „

“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me...shapes and ideas so near to me...so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down... „

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for. „

“I hate flowers. I only paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move. „

“To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage. „

“I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life -- and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. „

“Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. It is so spontaneous. And after singing, I think the violin. Since I cannot sing, I paint. „

“Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not. „

“Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time. „

“One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt. „

“...I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could...I had to create an equivalent for what I felt about what I was looking at...not copy it. „

“One can not be an American by going about saying that one is an American. It is necessary to feel America, like America, love America and then work. „