The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work.

Sometimes, when I've been staring too hard, I've noticed that I could see the circumference of my own eye.

The painter must give a completely free rein to any feeling or sensations he may have and reject nothing to which he is naturally drawn.

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

I have a timetable, but no routine.

I want paint to work as flesh... 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.

The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art. Eliot said that art is the escape from personality, which I think is right. We know that Velázquez embezzled money from the Spanish court and wanted power and so on, but you can't see this in his art.