I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.

I always try to make everyone mellow down, make sure everybody's happy. The people I have employed have always kind of stayed with us. A lot of people who come to work for you are artists in their own right. And they want to work for you because they want to pick something up.

When we are no longer children, we are already dead.

Art is the closest you can get to immortality, though it's a poor substitute - you're working for people not yet born - and people want it because it is brilliant. It ends up in museums anyway; the rich have to give it back to the people, it's their only option. There are no pockets in a shroud.

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.

I used to believe I was going to live forever. And then you suddenly become aware that you're not.

A lot of people thought I wasn't doing anything because I was spending a lot of time socialising and going out, but I've always managed to get work actually done.