"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 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."

"I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my 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."

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

"I am not a black artist, I am an artist."