“.. it was with the utmost reluctance that I found the figure could not serve my purposes… But a time came when none of us could use the figure without mutilating it. [his quote in 1959, looking back to the 1930's]”
As quoted in Abstract Expressionism, Davind Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 143
1950's
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Mark Rothko 36
American painter 1903–1970Related quotes
http://www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_tips_codd_obit.htm
Relational Database: A Practical Foundation for Productivity (1982)

Quoted in Adam Curtis' The Century of the Self (2002)

Collected Works, Vol. 29, p. 172.
Collected Works
Quote in: 'Hans Hofmann', Elizabeth Pollet, (interview of his 1957 Whitney Museum exhibition), Arts Magazine, May 1957 (article: 30-33)
1950s

On his personal stylistic breakthrough, quoted in Hear Me Talkin' to Ya (1955) edited by Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, . p 354

“I’M PRETTY GOOD at multitasking, so I figured I could flee in terror and argue at the same time.”
Source: The Sword of Summer