Being a good artist is the toughest job you could pick, and you have to be a little nuts to take it on.

Its obvious nonsense, but it makes nice people feel good about themselves to do their bit for the planet. Its vanity of a grotesque kind to believe that mankind, and our carbon footprint, has more impact on the future of Earth than Nature, which bends our planet to its will, as it sees fit.

Artists need a lot of collectors, all kinds of collectors, buying their art.

Lots of ambitious work by young artists ends up in a dumpster after its warehouse debut. So an unknown artist's big glass vitrine holding a rotting cow's head covered by maggots and swarms of buzzing flies may be pretty unsellable. Until the artist becomes a star. Then he can sell anything he touches .

I don't buy art in order to leave a mark or to be remembered; clutching at immortality is of zero interest to anyone sane.

By and large, talent is in such short supply that mediocrity can be taken for brilliance rather more than genius can go undiscovered.

Be the Worst You Can Be: Life's Too Long for Patience and Virtue