Chuck Close

I think the problem with the arts in America is how unimportant it seems to be in our educational system. ”

You don't have to have a great art idea - just get to work and something will happen. So that's pretty much my modus operandi and pretty much my principal position, such as it is. ”

There's something Zen-like about the way I work - it's like raking gravel in a Zen Buddhist garden. ”

Sometimes I really want to paint somebody and I don't get a photograph that I want to work from. ”

I only have so much time and energy and money, and I'm going to put it into my work. ”

I don't work with inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs. I just get to work. ”

Inspiration is highly overrated. If you sit around and wait for the clouds to part, it's not liable to ever happen. More often than not, work is salvation. ”

You don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today you will do what you did yesterday, and tomorrow you will do what you did today. Eventually you will get somewhere. ”

Women in general interest me. I like how women are more liable to talk about real things, personal things. ”