Glenn Ligon

Doors have an immediate familiarity. They're everywhere. They're scaled to our bodies, so there's something human about them. ”

I have been interested in neon for a long time. The first neon I made was in 2006, using the word 'America.' ”

In high school, driver's ed was at the same time as drama class. And I had to take drama class. Now I can sing the lead in 'Oklahoma!,' but I can't drive. ”

There was a time when I was a huge TV addict. I used to race home from school to watch 'Dark Shadows.' ”

If something sticks with me for a long time, it goes into a painting. ”

Claudia Rankine's book-length poem 'Citizen' was nominated for National Book Critics Circle awards in the categories of poetry and criticism. It is one of the most devastating takes on American culture I have read in a long time, laying bare the stakes of being black in a country long ambivalent about our presence here. ”

I'm not an Abstraction Expressionist, but I think dedication to paintings comes from an early interest in that work. ”

So much of my work has been about disappearing. ”

Much of my work is engaged with 'America' - the idea of America. ”

In 2011, 'Yourself in the World,' a book of my writings and interviews, was published in conjunction with a retrospective of my work at the Whitney Museum of American Art. ”