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

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

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.

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