There is life in a stone. Any stone that sits in a field or lies on a beach takes on the memory of that place. You can feel that stones have witnessed so many things.

People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and on the other, the city.

I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole. I find nature as a whole disturbing. Nature can be harsh – difficult and brutal, as well as beautiful. You couldn't walk five minutes from here without coming across something that is dead or decaying.

You must have something new in a landscape as well as something old, something that's dying and something that's being born.

The British climate, although it is very wet, it is quite mild in winter. We don't get these severe - generally don't get severe winters.

Complete control can be the death of a work.

I enjoy working in a quiet and subversive way.