I am happy for people to talk about my pictures, but I wish devoutly that I was not expected to talk about them myself.

My friends tend to be writers. I think writers and painters are really all the same-we just sit in our rooms.

I'm vulnerable to criticism. Any artist is, because you work alone in your studio and, until recently, critics were the only way you'd get any feedback.

I want my pictures to be things. I want them to be made up of marks that are physically and individually self-sufficient.

I'm very envious of the few artists who are any good and still do portraits.

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.

I never think that anything I do is courageous.