I don't really have a historical overview of my work at all. I'm not an art historian. I don't see that there's this period and that period.

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

I look at my pictures, and I think, 'Well, how did I do that?

The picture surface recedes just as much in the 20th century as it did in the 15th. The techniques of making pictures have hardly changed.

A collection makes its own demands. Many artists have been collectors. I think of it rather as an illness. I felt it was using up too much energy.

When I finish a painting, it usually looks as surprising to me as to anyone else.

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