Jackson Pollock

"I am interested in the energy of the work, not its appearance."

"To create is to risk everything."

"I paint to make sense of the senseless."

"The work must live and breathe on its own."

"I refuse to be trapped by the expectations of others."

"Art is the only path to authentic self-knowledge."

"I paint with the passion of one who has nothing to lose."

"The moment of creation is the moment of truth."

"I work beyond the reach of criticism."

"The painting completes itself through my labor."

"I am searching for the essence beneath the surface."

"Art demands total commitment or nothing at all."

"The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through."

"Every good painter paints what he is, not what he sees."

"Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement."

"I can control the flow of paint; it doesn't control me."

"Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you."

"The idea is not to carry on a tradition but to find out where tradition is going."

"I am nature. I work in it."

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing."

"The unconscious is a very important thing. It's the source."

"Painting is self-discovery. Every stroke tells you something about yourself."

"You don't make mistakes; you make discoveries."

"The artist's job is to save the soul of mankind."

"I let the paint speak for itself without trying to control it completely."

"There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end."

"Art should be about feeling, not thinking about it."

"I work from the inside out, like nature itself."

"The canvas is just another tool, like the brush or the drip."

"Energy and motion made visible—that's what art is."