So smoking is the perfect way to commit suicide without actually dying. I smoke because it's bad, it's really simple.

Death's just something that inspires me, not something that pulls me down. I used to get called morbid at school. I have always loved horror films; I like being frightened.

But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - or at least you think you are. The possibilities are limitless, you're inventing the future. Then you get older and suddenly you have a history. It's fixed. You can't change anything. I find that a bit disturbing, to be honest.

But whenever I look at the question of how to live, the answer's always staring me in the face. I'm already doing it.

For me, art is always a kind of theater. When I started the spot paintings I made them as an endless series. But I was never serious about it being an endless series. It was just an implied endless series. The theater means you just have to make it look good for that moment in the spotlight.

I'm 43. I'm not ready to sit down in a chair with my name on it yet.

I think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing.