And there is a conflict because it’s like the role of an artist, period. That is, is an artist talking to himself or is he trying to communicate to other people? I supposed he’s doing both, but sometimes one doesn’t know for sure which is more important. I really have tried to do both. And it also goes back to that kind of awkward statement about wanting to be a people’s artist as well as an artist’s artist [Indiana's December 1961 artist statement for the Museum of Modern Art, New York]. I think most of my peers, most of the serious artists that I’ve come into contact with, would be perfectly satisfied to be artists’ artists, and are really just plain disdainful of people and their lack of understanding and their prejudices. And I think I have a real desire to break through prejudice, if possible, not on the level of the popular artists, by meeting their requirements head on, but obliquely. The LOVE is certainly an exercise in that direction. It's had a frustrating aspect to it, but it never occurred to me that it would become the kind of popular thing that it is.
— Robert Indiana
Donald B. Goodall, "Conversations with Robert Indiana," in Robert L. B. Tobin, William Katz, and Donald B. Goodall, Robert Indiana (Austin: University of Texas, 1977), p. 26.