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

I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.

Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.

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

The painting is always done very much with [the model's] co-operation. The problem with painting a nude, of course, is that it deepens the transaction. You can scrap a painting of someone's face and it imperils the sitter's self-esteem less than scrapping a painting of the whole naked body.

Everything is autobiographical and everything is a portrait.

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