Quotes from Peter Max

When I wake up, I can't wait to get to the studio, go into the paint room.

I never know what I'm going to put on the canvas. The canvas paints itself. I'm just the middleman.

The '60s were an amazing time.

I walked out with 14 advertising projects.

When I put my brush to canvas, I never know what I'm going to paint. It's like when you're walking down the street with your hands in your pockets, humming a tune, you don't know what you'll be humming five minutes from now.

I stay busy, and it feels good.

I kind of love my work. I really love the pieces I do.

If I didn't choose art, I would have become an astronomer.

Don't worry about mistakes. Making things out of mistakes, that's creativity.

Seven days a week, I'm always drawing, doodling, or painting, whether I'm in the studio or on a plane.

My biggest love is still planets and stars. If I hadn't become an artist, I'd be an astronomer because I still love it so much.

I've done 44 portraits of Obama because he's the 44th president.

I appreciate America as being the most artistic nation because of its diversity.

I love so many different types of music - hard rock, bebop, jazz fusion, R&B. And I've loved meeting and painting so many amazing artists like Lionel Richie, Ronnie Wood, Sia, Steven Tyler, Swizz Beatz, Taylor Swift, James Moody, The Fifth Dimension, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Michael Jackson. It makes me smile thinking about each one of them.

I met Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin when I hung out with Michael Lang just before the Woodstock Festival. They were as charismatic in person as they were on stage.

It was a special thrill to meet, paint, and hang out with Ringo Starr.

Marlon Brando came up to me many, many years ago. He wanted me to do a little doodle for him on the back of an airline ticket.

The '60s were an amazing time.

My mother recognized my artistic talent and looked for someone to teach me to grow my abilities. She found an artist on the street who sent his daughter, Umba, over to begin teaching me when I was only three years of age.

All day long, I'm creative, and the second I get a little tired of any given medium, I just shut that area down and go to the next room. I just go do something else.

I love the title of 'hippy' because it means someone who is thinking cosmic and futuristic.

I grew up in Shanghai 'til I was 10 or 11, with one year in Tibet. When I was 5 or 6 years old, the American radio station came to Shanghai, and I used to love bebop and jazz, but I didn't know where it came from.

I don't even think about maintaining a relevance. I just think about what do I want to paint, what am I gonna do now, what am I gonna do later.

Some people remember me for my color; some people remember me as a friend.