When I was painting portraits and - shall we say? - rather allegorical heads, which is the figurative work which immediately preceded the direction I have since gone, these images were always of a very fixed, rigid quality, and, of course, my work still has this aspect.
Since my first encounter with Kafka's writing, I've been interested in a quality that, while he was alive, stood in the way of his achieving a large reputation: his allegory.
Commercial success and quality are not necessarily allied.
And I particularly like the whole thing of being boss. Boss and employee... It's the slave quality that I find very alluring.
Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures.
I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
I would say probably my most alpha quality is my competitive nature. I'm very competitive, and it tends to bring out very much the man in me.
Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so masters them.
A review of summit day photographs will show that I was clothed in the latest, highest quality, high altitude gear, comparable, if not better, than that worn by the other members of our expedition.
I doubt that I could create a character I loathed simply because when a character takes life, it is impossible not to be a little amazed by the phenomenon, and to find that the amazement has something of the quality of delight.
In all the music that deals with experimental repetition, drum and bass, dub, various kinds of house music, there's always been a quality of atmosphere and ambience.
If you stop and think about our history, one of the reasons we had an American century and there is an American dream was because at key points in our history we made very bold decisions about making sure that there was very broad, universal access to quality education.
Curitiba is not a paradise. We have all the problems that most Latin American cities have. We have slums. We have the same difficulties, but the big difference is the respect given by people due to the quality of the services which are provided.
In 1945, the world was in a shambles. American companies had no competition. So nobody really thought much about quality. Why should they? The world bought everything America produced. It was a prescription for disaster.
American movies are the most popular movies everywhere, and it is true that the quality is far from uniformly terrific.
There is more difference in the quality of our pleasures than in the amount.
If you have a great-sounding guitar that's a quality instrument and a good amp, and you know how to make the guitar talk, that's the key. It starts with the guitar and knowing what it should sound and feel like.
If you take my stuff apart, you'll find my choruses of repetitions are picked up almost verbatim from Kurt Vonnegut, and my distanced fracture quality is all from Amy Hempel, who's probably my favourite writer.
'At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom' by Amy Hempel showed me the lean quality of prose.