Mark Rothko

America is one of the few places in the world where a poorperson can still be obese.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Many people seem to believe that Greenfield Village and the Edison Institute and Museum at Dearborn, with their specimens of earlier type of American life and industry, are just a kind of antiquarian hobby of mine. I do not deny that they have given me a great deal of interest and pleasure. But the project is vastly more than a hobby. It has very definite purposes, and I hope will have results lasting down the years. One purpose is to remind the public who visit it and sometimes there are thousands a day–of how farand how fast we have come in technical progress in the last century or so. If we have come so far and so fast, is it likely that we shall stop now?

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

I grew up in a very masculine environment. So I was around a lot of men, my brothers and their friends. There was just a lot of guys around.

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.

We each own one car, and we have a reasonable house. It’s a lovely place to be, but it’s not extravagant.

You must learn that you do not have to be angry just because you have the right to be.

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

I’ve sworn never to read any reviews ever again except those that are pointed out to me as nice ones. I would say that most of us who are considered in the artist realm just take it so terribly, and, you know, it can kill ya!

If you can find a way to be truly ambivalent about what people think about you as an artist you’re completely freed up because you just end up doing things that turn you on creatively, and then as a person you really try and drown the noise.

Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.