Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous.

I had very few friends. There was nobody I could trust. I left home when I was fifteen. I lived in Washington Square Park.

Since I was seventeen I thought I might be a star. I'd think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix... I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous.

I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life.

I don't listen to what art critics say. I don't know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is.

There are about 30 words around you all the time, like 'thread' or 'exit.'

I like kids' work more than work by real artists any day.

Medicine men live in caves.

I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people.