Theres something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. Thats something I wanted in my paintings.

That's what it's all about - making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially - we can't hold on to them in any way. Painting and art is a way of holding onto things and making things go on through time.

You really need faith in yourself to make art and to stand up for what you believe in.

To paint well, I need to be enraptured by my subjects.

I like the really human sides of people. To meet them and see that they’re complicated and weird or shy or any of those things sort of makes it even better—to know that they can rise above that and make something great.

Romanticism is not just about being in a fixed state of endless beauty, because you can't live like that or live on that, that's what I've learnt.

Theres something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. Thats something I wanted in my paintings.