I see the canvas and I ...

I see the canvas and I begin... It's a necessary evil to get into the work, and it's pretty marvelous to be able to get out of it.
 Willem de Kooning

Quotes from the same author

Even abstract shapes must have a likeness
 Willem de Kooning
My interest in desperation lies only in that sometimes I find myself having become desperate. Very seldom do I start out that way. I can see of course that, in the abstract, thinking and all activity is rather desperate.
 Willem de Kooning
The idea of space is given to the artist to change if he can. The subject matter in the abstract is space.
 Willem de Kooning
The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers. One of their spotlights that they have particularly focused on 'Art'. [Abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that subject matter came into existence as something you ought not have.
 Willem de Kooning
Even an abstract form has to have a likeness.
 Willem de Kooning