I think that one wants from a painting a sense of life. The final suggestion, the final statement, has to be not a deliberate statement but a helpless statement. It has to be what you can't avoid saying. — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
Early on I was very involved with the notion of the painting as an object and tended to attack that idea from different directions. — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
Make something, a kind of object, which as it changes or falls apart (dies as it were) or increases in its parts (grows as… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
In my early work, I tried to hide my personality, my psychological state, my emotions. This was partly due to my feelings about myself… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
I have no ideas about what the paintings imply about the world. I don't think that's a painter's business. He just paints paintings without… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
I have meant what I have done. Or I have often meant what I have done. Or I have sometimes meant what I have… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
Art as a fantasy has been one of my earliest experiences. I suppose a lot of my childhood was a fantasy that involved getting… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
I was raised in South Carolina; I wasn't aware of any art in South Carolina. There was a minor museum in Charleston, which had… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
Sometime during the mid-50s I said, 'I am an artist.' Before that, for many years, I had said, 'I'm going to be an artist.'… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
That's what painting does; it organizes vision in a certain way or suggests that certain things be paid attention to and certain other things… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn't matter – that would be my life. — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
Bend color names which should be made of neon or copper tubing. Place an object on a surface - trace the object - then… — Jasper Johns Copy Share Image
