I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. — MICHELANGELO, SCULPTOR AND ARTIST

..crushed by the strength of this Art [the old Egyptian art].. .I fought against it but it conquered, it is surely the greatest Art the past has left us.. ..how are my feeble hands to ever paint the effect on me.

The thing that struck me most was the way he stuck to the motif [in the 'Flag' and 'Target' paintings by Jasper Johns ].. ..the idea of stripes – the rhythm and the interval – the idea of repetition. I began to think a lot about repetition. [quote, 1960's]

I was in analysis and I told my analyst I wanted to be the best sculptor in the world and he said: "Richard, calm down."

[to see the painting]..as an object, as a real thing in itself. (quote on his Flag-paintings)

In 1946, President Truman... was traveling with Winston Churchill to Missouri, where Churchill would deliver his famous “Iron Curtain” speech... at Westminster at a local college. On the train, Truman showed Churchill a recent re-design of the presidential seal. The eagle’s head was turned to the right, so it faced the talons holding olive branches. Now, that represented diplomacy. But rather than having the eagle turn to face the arrows, which represented war, Churchill pondered for a moment and he said, “I think the head should be on a swivel, back and forth.”