Quotes from Yayoi Kusama

My life is a dot lost among thousands of other dots.

I have done all the work myself, not assistants. That's why I'm in a wheelchair: I've been doing it physically - it's hard labour - throughout my life.

Polka dots are fabulous.

Certainly, I devote my energy to both telling my personal life story and seeking self- obliteration. However, I will not destroy myself through art.

Georgia O'Keeffe proposed that I live with her. She was in New Mexico then, and I wanted to be in New York.

If there's a cat, I obliterate it by putting polka dot stickers on it. I obliterate a horse by putting polka dot stickers on it. And I obliterated myself by putting the same polka dot stickers on myself.

I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw.

Every time I have had a problem, I have confronted it with the ax of art.

If it were not for art, I would have killed myself a long time ago.

New York is the place that made my and other artists' dreams come true by giving us a chance to realise our ideas and concepts. It was a great place for making a presentation of artistic creation.

I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland.

Since my childhood, I have always made works with polka dots. Earth, moon, sun and human beings all represent dots; a single particle among billions.

I am putting every effort toward creating my works from morning till night on every single day.

While producing art works, illusions appear from time to time due to my mental illness. Every day is a struggle for me.

The reason I collaborate with Louis Vuitton is that Louis Vuitton is number one in the world, and I am honored to work with them.

Basically, my idea and explorations on fashion have not changed; however, I believe I'm going state-of-the-art on fashion.

I have been taking every step toward the future every day through making many paintings and sculptures with my deep emotion hidden in my life.

People ask about art and commercialism. I think that if someone tries to sell their work at a high price, that is the wrong way of doing it.

My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.

I was in the U.S. about 15 years. Especially in New York. And then I came back to Japan.

I have been using polka dots since I was a very young child. Only after that, it seems, have they been used throughout the rest of the art world.

Forget yourself. Become one with eternity. Become part of your environment.

When I paint, some things come out, and I don't know. Maybe it's because I have such talent as a painter.

Now our Earth is swarmed with issues such as life, death, illness, wars, economic crises and many others. It is time that we sing out loud the message, 'Love forever.'