I knew what a circle could do. Both eyes focus on it. It stamps itself — Kenneth Noland

"We tend to discount a lot of meaning that goes on in life thats non-verbal. Color can convey a total range of mood and expression, of ones experience in life, without having to give it descriptive or literary qualities."

"Until Abstract Expressionism you had to have something to paint about, some kind of subject matter. Even though Kandinsky and Arthur Dove were improvising earlier, it didnt take. They had to have symbols, suggested natural images or geometry, which was something real structurally. That gave them something to paint about. What was new was the idea that something you looked at could be like something you heard."

"I have to work things out by painting them. I cant just imagine what will happen. I have to do it and see it. Thats the only way I find out if it will go anywhere."

"One of my grandfathers was a blacksmith, and all the plumbers and carpenters and electricians, people who did things with their hands, thought of themselves as artists because they were good at doing things. They were proud of their making things."

"I believe that there are varying points of contact. You have to be able to see the whole thing first. All great paintings are sculptures – theres so much of the factualness about it that a great painting forces you into a visual, physical movement of yourself. Thats what determines the way you experience a painting kinetically. You move closer, you sight down it, you till your head, you step back, you feel as though you are in it. That being in it is just as important as looking from a distance."

"Tony Cairo [English abstract sculptor] and I tried to collaborate at several points and it hasnt been successful. As a matter of fact, recently Tony has made sculpture that I have painted. He has to make the sculpture before I can paint it. That means that the form is taking precedence – that the material takes precedence as a form, rather than color establishing the form. Its not going to well but Im working on it. Theres something about color that is so abstract that it is difficult for it to function in conjunction with solid form.. .Color has properties of weight, density, transparency, and so forth. And when it also has to be compatible with things that have an actual density, a given form, its very difficult."