“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.”

“Leanoardo wrote that a painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light. Most painters do the opposite, starting with a whitewash and adding the shadows last. But Paul, who knows Leonardo so well you'd thing the old man slept on the bottom bunk, understands the value of starting with the shadows. The only things people can ever know about you are the ones you let them see.”

“Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, ‘You can't do a thing’. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can't' once and for all.”

“...where there should be remorse, regret, longing, grief, there is, of course, only me. The black hole, the white canvas, the empty room.”

“The city was dark except for the building lights that seemed to appear like sores - like bandaids had been ripped off to expose the city's skin.”

“Even within the dark paint on a canvas, and the shadows in a photograph, there is light.”