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

I don't want any colour to be noticeable... I don't want it to operate in the modernist sense as colour, something independent... Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.

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

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.

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

I have a hatred of habit and routine. And what dogs love is just that. They like regular everything, and I don't have regular anything. I have a timetable, but no routine.