107 Quotes by Jasper Johns

I would like to have insights into things like government, all those big ideas that you brought up that I simply don’t have ideas about. I would like to be able to since so many people discuss them, but I don’t want to work at them. I don’t think my ambition is that strong in that direction.

It’s almost just a difference of mood as to whether I would describe myself one way or the other. I think I share that experience with most people.

I would tend to say that I do what I do as well as possible and that most people don’t.

It’s simple, you just take something and do something to it, and then do something else to it. Keep doing this, and pretty soon you’ve got something.

I assumed that everything would lead to complete failure, but I decided that didn’t matter – that would be my life.

I don’t want my work to be an exposure of my feelings.

I’m working in my mind.

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.

I feel that works of art are an opportunity for people to construct meaning, so I don’t usually tell what they mean. It conveys to people that they have to participate.