There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs.

I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and whilst abroad underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them.

Once I got out of architecture school I decided not to be an architect I just started my own little design studio.

In my early 20s I was so miserable doing construction I wanted something that paid money. I liked nice stuff. I liked cars and architecture and things that cost money. I wanted to not swing a hammer and make money... and not do stuff that was dirty. I attempted to get into comedy. I started to do stand-up but I wasn't very good at it.

In art or architecture your project is only done when you say it's done. If you want to rip it apart at the eleventh hour and start all over again you never finish. I was one of those crazy creatures.

To work in architecture you are so much involved with society with politics with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society how it functions how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.

I paint mostly from real life. It has to start with that. Real people real street scenes behind the curtain scenes live models paintings photographs staged setups architecture grids graphic design. Whatever it takes to make it work.

Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.

When you start suppressing feelings at an early age it hurts you down the road. Full expression of anger and pain is very important.