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

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

I look at my pictures, and I think, 'Well, how did I do that?

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.

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 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.