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.

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

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.

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

When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.

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.

The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part of them as their flesh.