Eventually, a collection ceases to be a personal indulgence and assumes its own identity. In fact, it becomes a thing in its own right - rather like Frankenstein's monster.

In England, it's thought to be morally suspect to worry about what your surroundings look like.

I don't look at the work of my contemporaries very much; I tend to look at pictures by dead artists. It's much easier to get near their paintings.

I never think that anything I do is courageous.

I think words come between the spectator and the picture.

I am isolated as an artist, not as a person.

I find old copies of National Gallery catalogues, which are written in the dryest possible prose, infinitely soothing.