MARTIN MULL

I've always had a certain fascination. It's basically paint what you know, and this is what I grew up with.

Around 1980, I went back to painting with a vengeance.

Never underestimate a child's ability to get into more trouble.

A cult following is a nice way of saying very few people like you.

If there is some art involved, I'd like it to be that it came through the cracks of daily work.

I had a teacher in art school who said something about the only works he really enjoyed seeing or found much in were works where he had a sense that a discovery was made in the course of making this object. I like to hold to that as my marching orders.

The trouble with jogging is that the ice falls out of your glass.

Having children is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain.

I try to not get to the point where one is making wallpaper, or simply painting money. I want to make sure that I am at least trying to weigh myself down, that there's a challenge each time.

It was taunted as reality. It was dangled as a carrot. In terms of people's hopes and dreams, to say that that is less of a reality than the daily grind they find themselves in is maybe not correct.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

It really is a day job, and it also seems to have virtually disappeared-with no remorse, really. It gives me more time to paint.

It seems like the opportunity just increases exponentially. There doesn't seem to be much stopping.

Some of the pictures I must say every now and then I just think are going to be funny. When it gets that much, you might as well just pull out all the stops and make it more of a burlesque.

You'd be surprised at how undemanding acting is.

I never stopped making pictures. There were times when more of my income was coming from other sources, and I had to devote more time to television and movies and records.

I don't think you really can send an exact message, because any two viewers are so disparate, in terms of their backgrounds, their point of view, their histories, that there's no telling what that message might be.

You'd have to think that you're at least decent, or you couldn't get up every morning and do it. I think if I live long enough, I might be pretty good.

It's hard to decide if TV makes morons out of everyone, or if it mirrors Americans who really are morons to begin with.

Show business is just like high school, except you get paid.

To be able to get up and be in my studio and work all day is a great joy.

I kind of just lucked into and fell into the other profession. It was really just an outgrowth of the fact that when I was in art school, I had no money whatsoever.

I think there are a lot of pictures to make. I sometimes question whether I'm even an artist or just a painter. To me, the making of the pictures is the most important thing.

Like a guide dog, paintings help you see.

What's the point of cleaning up your act if you don't have an act?