“In the early fifties I was going to be an artist, and I kept meeting people who were artists, and I thought, “Here I am, still going to be an artist.” What was different? What needed to be changed, so that I would be, rather than going to be? It was then I decided I would only allow myself to do what I couldn’t not do, and whatever I did would have to represent myself as an artist. There was a change in my spirit, in my thought and my work, as well as some doubt and terror.” - Jasper Johns, as quoted in Jasper Johns: A Retrospective by Kirk Varnedoe.