“You have understood what all great painters understand: in order to forget the rules, you must know them and respect them.”

“Instruction for life: Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk. When you lose, don't lose the lesson. Follow the three R's: - Respect for self. - Respect for others. - Responsibility for all your actions. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.”

“Rules are a great way to get ideas. All you have to do is break them.”

“They don't respect you, they don't respect our flag, they don't respect our King and they don't respect your parents. If you allow this to happen, then you are cowards. You must teach them what being Malaysian is all about.”

“The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules—but you have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are not in a position to transcend them.”

“Works of art are meant to be lived with and loved, and if we try to understand them, we should try to understand them as we try to understand anyone—in order to know them better, not in order to know something else.”