Jackson Pollock

My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more a part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

The modern artist is working with space and time, and expressing his feelings rather than illustrating.

It doesn't make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.

I don't use the accident. I deny the accident.

I have a general notion of what I'm about and what the results will be.

I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.

New needs need new techniques.

It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

I don't paint nature. I am nature.

Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have a beginning or an end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was. It was a fine compliment.

I think the artist's function is to make the spectator see the world in a different way.

Painting is a state of being.

I'm very rarely aware of what I'm doing. I just let it happen.

I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own.

I try to let it come through.

It's not a question of how to paint, but how to get rid of painting.

I don't have to look for my subject matter. I am the subject matter.

I am not an abstract artist. I am a painter.

I'm not interested in illustrating my emotions.