Carly Berwick: How do you know when you see a good piece of wood?
Robert Indiana: Oh, it has to have character. Lots of wrinkles and knotholes. Just a plain old panel doesn't make the grade.
Berwick: Are these pieces of trees?
Indiana: No. I seldom touch driftwood. It's already complete—it's so gorgeous, what can you do except harm it? No, most of them are pieces of piers, pieces of boats, which gives it all a romantic touch.
Carly Berwick, “Love Machine Robert Indiana,” New York Magazine (September 19, 2005), p. 78.