I think it's good when people don't write good things about your work. I mean, what a great compliment it is to be called a charlatan.

I'm not mannerist. I don't think I'm interested in mannerism. If I ever use it in a way, or if manner is like some kind of product of certain sorts of usage of different kinds of materials, then it's about involution or turning in on that.

We need to not be scared [of muslim], but understand each other. When you're around these people, you see they have much more in common than their differences.

My early paintings weren't that good - I was very influenced by Francis Bacon. But there was a kind of intensity there. And however influenced they may have been by other people, even my earliest paintings were recognisably my own.

The thing about living in New York is that there are other artists; that is the most difficult, I think they are the hardest critics.

I think the nice thing about showing work in New York is that other artists come to see it. When you show work in Switzerland or somewhere else, everywhere else seems to be the provinces in a certain way. You wonder what your paintings are doing on the walls and you wonder who's looking at them.

I think that truth is stranger than fiction, and it's nice to know the people you're making a movie about.