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

I think words come between the spectator and the picture.

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

I dont think you can lightly paint a picture. Its an activity I take very seriously.

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.

You keep on balancing and balancing and balancing until the picture wins, because then the subject's turned into the picture.

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