In the United States there has been a kind of a structure in the Modern art world. The New York School was nearly a coherent thing-for a minute.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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