All painting, no matter what you are painting, is abstract in that it's got to be organized.

About shadows: do we see shadows? Loads of people don't. A camera will notice a shadow, but how many people have got a shadow in front of them when they take a picture and don't notice it, and then they see it in the photograph because the photograph will catch the shadow.

I've no doubt that those photographs i took will make people look at everything in a more interesting way - the little tear on one piece of paper, the shadow on another. But good painting has always done that - made you see things. And the most ordinary can be the most extraordinary.

Smoking calms me down. It's enjoyable. I don't want politicians deciding what is exciting in my life.

There's no need to believe what an artist says. Believe what he does; that's what counts.

Anything simple always interests me.

I can often tell when drawings are done from photographs, because you can tell what they miss out, what the camera misses out: usually weight and volume - there's a flatness to them.