Gathered from Haring’s journals and interviews, these lively quotes reveal his influences and thoughts on a variety of topics, including birth and death, possibility and uncertainty, and difference and conformity. They demonstrate Haring’s deep engagement with subjects outside of the art world and his outspoken commitment to activism. Taken together, this selection reflects Haring’s distinctive voice and reminds us why his work continues to resonate with fans around the globe.

Select quotations from the book:

• “Art lives through the imaginations of the people who are seeing it. Without that contact, there is no art.”
• “It’s a huge world. There are lots and lots and lots of people that I haven’t reached yet that I’d like to reach.”
• “Art is one of the last areas that is totally within the realm of the human individual and can’t be copied or done better by a machine.”
• “The artist, if he is a vessel, is also a performer.”
• “No matter how long you work, it’s always going to end sometime. And there’s always going to be things left undone.”
• “I decided to make a major break. New York was the only place to go.”
• “I came to believe there was no such thing as chance. If you accept that there are no coincidences, you use whatever comes along.”
• “There was a migration of artists from all over America to New York. It was completely wild. And we controlled it ourselves.”
• “I couldn’t go back to the abstract drawings; it had to have some connection to the real world.”