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

Passion lies between one mark and the next, and also within all of them.

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 think words come between the spectator and the picture.

I think that words are often extraneous to what I do.

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.

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