Jasper Johns

“I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world.”

“The painting of a flag is always about a flag, but it is no more about a flag than it is about a brushstroke or about a color or about the physicality of the paint.”

“I'm interested in things which suggest the world rather than express the personality.”

“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.”

“One hopes for something resembling truth, some sense of life, even of grace, to flicker, at least, in the work.”

“Generally, I am opposed to paintings that have messages.”

“Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.”

“I am trying to make a work in which the viewer sees what I have seen and what I am seeing.”

“One works from day to day, and there's no larger scheme.”

“I think you're born with a certain makeup, and you're drawn to certain things.”

“To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.”

“I think that one wants from a painting a sense of life.”

“My work is largely a process of finding what the painting is about. I don't have a preconceived notion.”

“It's a very difficult thing to do, to be a painter, and not to be a painter.”

“I think art is a very fluid thing.”