Philip Guston

In my experience a painting is not made with colors and paint at all. I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint?

I am a night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the delirium is over.

Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see.

Look at any inspired painting. It's like a gong sounding; it puts you in a state of reverberation.

Usually I am on a work for a long stretch, until a moment arrives when the air of the arbitrary vanishes, and the paint falls into positions that feel destined.

I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and anywhere.