What do I ask of a painting? I ask it to astonish, disturb, seduce, convince.

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

The process of creation becomes necessary to the painter perhaps more than is the picture. The process in fact is habit-forming

I've always wanted to create drama in my pictures, which is why I paint people. It's people who have brought drama to pictures from the beginning. The simplest human gestures tell stories.

I am only interested in painting the actual person, in doing a painting of them, not in using them to some ulterior end of art. For me, to use someone doing something not native to them would be wrong.

The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.

A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure.