The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

The moment you can learn to deal with homosexuality in art, it's quite an exciting moment, just as in a sense when people 'come out' it's quite an exciting moment. It means they become aware of their desires, and can deal with them in a remarkably honest way.

I was 18 when I first visited London, I'm very provincial like that, but I must confess the moment I got to America I thought: This is the place. It was more open, with 24-hour cities and pubs and restaurants that didn't close.

In fact, most artists want to make things a bit more difficult for themselves as they go along, to challenge themselves.

Every good artist I know, I always think works hard, we're working all the time.

I'm fed up with being bossed around.

In the end nobody knows how it's done — how art is made. It can't be explained. Optical devices are just tools. Understanding a tool doesn't explain the magic of creation. Nothing can.