I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them.

As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does

A painter's tastes must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art.

The only secret I can claim to have is concentration, and that's something that can't be taught.

Losing as much money as I can get hold of is an instant solution to my economic problems.

Painting is sometimes like those recipes where you do all manner of elaborate things to a duck, and then end up putting it on one side and only using the skin.

I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art what he thought it previously lacked. With me, it's what Yeats called the fascination with what's difficult. I'm only trying to do what I can't do.