Robert Rauschenberg on an artist’s tricks

[I have] various tricks to actually reach that solitary point of creativity. One of them is pretending I have an idea. But that trick doesn’t survive very long because I don’t really trust ideas—especially good ones….Rather, I put my trust in the materials that confront me, because they put me in touch with the unknown. It is then that I begin to work…when I don’t have the comfort of sureness and certainty. Sometimes Jack Daniels helps too. Another good trick is fatigue. I like to start working when it’s almost too late…when my sense of efficiency is exhausted.

—Robert Rauschenberg