I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really messy. I'd never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect Spiderman.

I'm not a real person. I'm a legend.

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 have a painting where somebody's holding a chicken, and underneath the chicken is somebody's head.

If I'm away from painting for a week, I get bored.

I have done only two portraits: one of the artist Francesco Clemente and another of Andy Warhol.

I wanted to build up a name for myself.

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

Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her.

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.

The black person is the protagonist in most of my paintings. I realized that I didn't see many paintings with black people in them.

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

My basic influence had probably been Peter Max.

I want to make paintings that look as if they were made by a child.

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

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