We’re in the age of denial of everything but physical existence.The thing we’ve got to fight for is humanism - it’s the highest thing we know; we can’t mechanize ourselves out of existence.

No doubt I did them because I am an American painter. I cannot be indifferent to the swarming crowds, multitudes, neon signs, movie theatres, to the noises that I hate of modern cities. (Concerning city paintings)

Of course when I did Broadway I did it because I loved it, because I had experienced it. It was in my bones, but I could paint it best when I was farthest from it.

I have lived all over America except the South; [...] actually lived these damned streets on Sunday where not even a cat is seen. [...] It’s that kind of a life that can live without extensions. Isolationism. But not isolated by continents and water - isolated from spiritual currents.

There is no such thing as a distinctly original artist. Every artist has its patron saints whether or not he is willing to acknowledge them. When an influence is strong enough, give in to it.

When I was a young man, I never heard of Byzantine art. [...] Now, above the horizon has come the beauty of Byzantine art - not only that, but the art the coloured people have, and the art of the Coptics, and all of the Orient and everything that has flooded the world.
Now it seems to me that we are in an universalizing period. [...] If we are to have world peace, we should have an understanding of all the idioms of beauty because the members of humanity who have created these idioms of beauty are going to be a part of us. And I would say that we are in a period when we are discovering and becoming acquainted with these idioms for the first time.

[...] universal marshland, wherein lie forms of ancient ideas and cultures apparently unrelated to us but only waiting for time to reveal themselves upon the arc of our consciousness. [...]