I think people have problems sometimes when things are too general. In fact, they are not really general at all.

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.

It doesn't matter what I think I am, it matters what I do.

You can't have a good bullfight without a good bull.

I wanted to show painting paintings first, then the plate paintings; now I can show that I've sort of freed myself from stylistic inhibitions.

I don't know if I could, like, see a face and know what the face of beauty looks like, but after I've seen it I know if I've felt like it was beauty.

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.