Art history is littered with work that involves light.

I don't want you looking at the light fixture; I want you looking at where light goes. But more than that, I'm interested in the effect of light upon you and your perceptions.

I've always wanted to make a light that looks like the light you see in your dream.

To some degree, to control light, I have to have a way to form it, so I use form almost like the stretcher bar of a canvas.

I always thought that people who live in the desert are a little crazy. It could be that the desert attracts that kind of person, or that after living there, you become that. It doesn't make much difference. But now I've done my 40 years in the desert.

It's really terrific to see Pittsburgh recognize the Mattress Factory.

New York has changed amazingly; it's gentrified everywhere, and it's a much gentler place.

I used to think that only people who were crazy were attracted to the desert, but once you've lived there, you become that way anyway.

I was waiting for L.A. to always become something important. I gave up... I left in 1974.

There are different stages when you fly. The first stage is the dollhouse effect, seeing everything on Earth like it's a model. Suddenly, all of your concerns seem very small.

There was a time when I restored antique planes to support my art habit.

I'm interested in light. It's a very direct, pragmatic, American, rather naive approach.

I hope that when you see my work, you are looking at yourself looking.

Color is just in a small area of our vision, and the rest we add with the mind.

I have made things for Calvin Klein and other designers, and it's interesting to see the way each person approaches it.

It's difficult for people to visualize from my drawings what it's going to be, so I often find myself talking them into things that they go along with, and when they see what's been made, they are surprised.

Usually we are illuminating things instead of looking at the light itself. But I like this quality of the light being the revelation.

The people in L.A. do orient themselves to light. I used to call it 'Tan Fascist Culture.' Everyone there is tanned, wears dark sunglasses, looks like a movie star even when they're not.

I don't worry about whether anyone knows anything about art.

I look at light as a material. It is physical. It is photons. Yes, it exhibits wave behavior, but it is a thing.

If you take blue paint and yellow paint and you mix them, you get green paint. But if you take blue light and yellow light and mix them, you get white light. This is a shock to most people.

I don't think my work is about the spiritual life, but it certainly touches on it.

I haven't been that great at attending my own openings. Still, I'm learning to enjoy this a lot more than I used to.

Planets' orbits are elliptical. It's a very pleasing shape.